Abstract
BF211, a bufalin (BF) derivative, exhibits stronger anti-cancer activity than BF but with potential cardiotoxicity. Fibroblast activation protein-α (FAPα) is a membrane-bound protease specifically expressed by carcinoma-associated fibroblasts, thus has been used for the selective delivery of anticancer agents. In this study, we used a FAPα-based prodrug strategy to synthesize a dipeptide (Z-Gly-Pro)-conjugated BF211 prodrug named BF211-03. BF211-03 was hydrolyzed by recombinant human FAPα (rhFAPα) and cleaved by homogenates of human colon cancer HCT-116 or human gastric cancer MGC-803 xenografts. In contrast, BF211-03 showed good stability in plasma and in the homogenates of FAPα-negative normal tissues, such as heart and kidney. In HCT-116 and MGC-803 cells with low levels of FAPα expression, BF211-03 displayed a lower in vitro cytotoxicity than BF211 with approximately 30 to 40-fold larger IC50 values, whereas in human breast cancer MDA-MB-435 cells with high levels of FAPα expression, the IC50 value difference between BF211-03 and BF211 was small (approximately 4-fold). Although the cytotoxicity of BF211-03 against tumor cells was dramatically decreased by the chemical decoration, it was restored after cleavage of BF211-03 by rhFAPα or tumor homogenate. In HCT-116 tumor-bearing nude mice, doubling the dose of BF211-03, compared with BF211, caused less weight loss, but showing similar inhibitive effects on tumor growth. Our results suggest that BF211-03 is converted to active BF211 in tumor tissues and exhibits anti-tumor activities in tumor-bearing nude mice. FAPα-targeted BF211-03 displays tumor selectivity and may be useful as a targeting agent to improve the safety profile of cytotoxic natural products for use in cancer therapy.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported in part through grants from the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action program (No 15140904800 and 14431902700), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No 81373964 and 81402953), the National Science & Technology Major Project of China (No 2014ZX09301-306-03), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No 2015T80416) and the Program for Outstanding Scientific and Technological Innovation Team of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.
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Chai, Xp., Sun, Gl., Fang, Yf. et al. Tumor-targeting efficacy of a BF211 prodrug through hydrolysis by fibroblast activation protein-α. Acta Pharmacol Sin 39, 415–424 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/aps.2017.121
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/aps.2017.121
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