Gunaratne Gihan S, Gallant Joseph P, Ott Kendahl L, Broome Payson L, Celada Sasha, West Jayden L, Mixdorf Jason C, Aluicio-Sarduy Eduardo, Engle Jonathan W, Boros Eszter, Meimetis Labros, Lang Joshua M, Zhao Shuang G, Hernandez Reinier, Kosoff David, LeBeau Aaron M
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Program, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
Commun Biol. 2025 Aug 13;8(1):1210. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08610-x.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the stroma of solid tumors promote an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) that drives resistance to therapies. The expression of the protease fibroblast activation protein (FAP) on the surface of CAFs has made FAP a target for the development of therapies to mitigate immunosuppression. Relatively few biologics have been developed for FAP and none have been developed that exploit the unique properties of Variable New Antigen Receptors (VNARs) from shark immunoglobulins. Through the direct immunization of a nurse shark with FAP, we created a large anti-FAP VNAR phage display library. This library allowed us to identify a suite of anti-FAP VNARs through traditional biopanning and by an in silico approach that did not require any affinity maturation. We investigated four VNAR-Fc fusion proteins for theranostic properties and found that all four recognized FAP with high affinity and were rapidly internalized by FAP-positive cells. As a result, the VNAR-Fc constructs were effective antibody-drug conjugates in vitro when attached to an anti-mitotic payload and were able to localize to FAP-positive xenografts in vivo by positron emission tomography. Our findings establish VNAR-Fc constructs as a versatile platform for theranostic development that could yield innovative cancer therapies targeting the TME.
实体瘤基质中的癌症相关成纤维细胞(CAF)会促进免疫抑制性肿瘤微环境(TME)的形成,从而导致对治疗产生抗性。CAF表面蛋白酶成纤维细胞激活蛋白(FAP)的表达使FAP成为减轻免疫抑制治疗开发的靶点。针对FAP开发的生物制剂相对较少,且尚未开发出利用鲨鱼免疫球蛋白可变新抗原受体(VNAR)独特特性的生物制剂。通过用FAP直接免疫护士鲨,我们创建了一个大型抗FAP VNAR噬菌体展示文库。该文库使我们能够通过传统的生物淘选和一种无需任何亲和力成熟的计算机方法来鉴定一组抗FAP VNAR。我们研究了四种VNAR-Fc融合蛋白的诊疗特性,发现所有四种蛋白都以高亲和力识别FAP,并被FAP阳性细胞迅速内化。因此,当与抗有丝分裂载荷连接时,VNAR-Fc构建体在体外是有效的抗体-药物偶联物,并且能够通过正电子发射断层扫描在体内定位于FAP阳性异种移植瘤。我们的研究结果确立了VNAR-Fc构建体作为一种多功能诊疗开发平台的地位,该平台可能会产生针对TME的创新癌症疗法。
J Nucl Med. 2024-10-1