Intracellular Delivery of Anti-Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Antibodies Mediated by Polymeric Micelles Exerts Strong In Vitro and In Vivo Anti-Tumorigenic Activity in Kirsten Rat Sarcoma-Mutated Cancers

  • Diana Rafael*
  • , Sara Montero
  • , Pilar Carcavilla
  • , Fernanda Andrade
  • , Júlia German-Cortés
  • , Zamira V. Diaz-Riascos
  • , Joaquin Seras-Franzoso
  • , Monserrat Llaguno
  • , Begoña Fernández
  • , Alfredo Pereira
  • , Esteban F. Duran-Lara
  • , Simó Schwartz
  • , Ibane Abasolo*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene (KRAS) is one of the most well-known proto-oncogenes, frequently mutated in pancreatic and colorectal cancers, among others. We hypothesized that the intracellular delivery of anti-KRAS antibodies (KRAS-Ab) with biodegradable polymeric micelles (PM) would block the overactivation of the KRAS-associated cascades and revert the effect of its mutation. To this end, PM-containing KRAS-Ab (PM-KRAS) were obtained using Pluronic F127. The feasibility of using PM for antibody encapsulation as well as the conformational change of the polymer and its intermolecular interactions with the antibodies was studied, for the first time, using in silico modeling. In vitro, encapsulation of KRAS-Ab allowed their intracellular delivery in different pancreatic and colorectal cancer cell lines. Interestingly, PM-KRAS promoted a high proliferation impairment in regular cultures of KRAS-mutated HCT116 and MIA PaCa-2 cells, whereas the effect was neglectable in non-mutated or KRAS-independent HCT-8 and PANC-1 cancer cells, respectively. Additionally, PM-KRAS induced a remarkable inhibition of the colony formation ability in low-attachment conditions in KRAS-mutated cells. In vivo, when compared with the vehicle, the intravenous administration of PM-KRAS significantly reduced tumor volume growth in HCT116 subcutaneous tumor-bearing mice. Analysis of the KRAS-mediated cascade in cell cultures and tumor samples showed that the effect of PM-KRAS was mediated by a significant reduction of the ERK phosphorylation and a decrease in expression in the stemness-related genes. Altogether, these results unprecedently demonstrate that the delivery of KRAS-Ab mediated by PM can safely and effectively reduce the tumorigenicity and the stemness properties of KRAS-dependent cells, thus bringing up new possibilities to reach undruggable intracellular targets.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)10398-10413
Number of pages16
JournalACS applied materials & interfaces
Volume15
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Chemical Society.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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