Background/Objective: At least 25% of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients develop liver metastases (CRLM), and chemotherapeutic regimens based on the fluoropyrimidine (FP) drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) provide a survival advantage, but long-term survival is uncommon. The primary molecular target of FP drugs is thymidylate synthase (TS). Methods: A TS/Top1 dual-targeting cytotoxic mechanism for CF10/LV was confirmed by TS ternary complex detection by Western blot and by immunofluorescence detection of Top1 cleavage complexes. CF10/LV activated the ATR/Chk1 pathway consistent with enhanced replication stress and induced apoptosis. In vivo studies showed CF10 and CF10/LV eradicated liver metastasis in a CRLM model without scarring or weight loss, displaying therapeutic advantages relative to legacy FPs. Results: We demonstrated that a nanoscale FP polymer, CF10, displayed greater potency than expected based on FP content in part through more direct conversion to the TS-inhibitory metabolite, FdUMP. In this study, we tested CF10 for potency advantages relative to 5-FU and trifluorothymidine (TFT, the FP component of TAS-102) and confirmed a general potency advantage for CF10 in CRC cell lines in the Broad Institute PRISM screen. We demonstrated that this potency advantage is retained in CRC cells cultured with human-like folate levels and is enhanced by LV co-treatment to a similar extent as that by 5-FU. Our results confirm CF10 development proceeding as a CF10/LV combination. Mechanistically, CF10 cytotoxicity closely correlates with poisons of DNA topoisomerase 1 (Top1) in the PRISM screen relative to 5-FU and TFT. Conclusions: Our pre-clinical data support an early-phase clinical trial for CF10 for treating liver-metastatic CRC.
背景/目的:至少25%的结直肠癌(CRC)患者会发生肝转移(CRLM),基于氟嘧啶(FP)药物5-氟尿嘧啶(5-FU)的化疗方案可带来生存获益,但长期生存并不常见。FP药物的主要分子靶点是胸苷酸合成酶(TS)。方法:通过Western blot检测TS三元复合物以及免疫荧光检测Top1切割复合物,证实了CF10/LV具有TS/Top1双靶点细胞毒性机制。CF10/LV激活了ATR/Chk1通路,这与增强的复制应激一致,并诱导了细胞凋亡。体内研究表明,在CRLM模型中,CF10和CF10/LV清除了肝转移灶,且未引起疤痕形成或体重减轻,相对于传统FP药物显示出治疗优势。结果:我们证明,一种纳米级FP聚合物CF10显示出比基于FP含量预期更高的效力,部分原因是其能更直接地转化为TS抑制性代谢物FdUMP。在本研究中,我们测试了CF10相对于5-FU和三氟胸苷(TFT,TAS-102的FP成分)的效力优势,并在Broad研究所的PRISM筛选中证实了CF10在CRC细胞系中具有普遍的效力优势。我们证明,在与人类相似叶酸水平下培养的CRC细胞中,这种效力优势得以保留,并且通过LV联合治疗得到增强,其增强程度与5-FU相似。我们的结果证实了CF10的开发是作为CF10/LV组合进行的。在机制上,相对于5-FU和TFT,在PRISM筛选中CF10的细胞毒性与DNA拓扑异构酶1(Top1)毒物密切相关。结论:我们的临床前数据支持开展针对CF10治疗肝转移性CRC的早期临床试验。