The present invention relates to a field of radioactive probes for disease diagnosis and treatment, in particular to a TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe targeting integrin αvβ3 and/or somatostatin receptor (SSTR) positive diseases and a preparation method thereof, and applications of the compound as targeting molecules for diagnosis and treatment.
An important part of tumor growth is neovascularization, which is regulated by a variety of protein molecules. One of the key proteins is integrinαvβ3, an extracellular matrix receptor, which is a heterodimeric transmembrane glycoprotein composed of two subunits. Integrin αvβ3 is one of the important molecular markers of tumors, which is highly expressed on the surface of neovascular endothelial cells and some tumor cells, such as neuroblastoma, osteosarcoma, glioblastoma, breast cancer and prostate cancer; while Integrin αvβ3 is not expressed or expressed very low in formed blood vessels and normal tissues. Due to its high expression in tumor growth and metastasis, integrin αvβ3 has become one of the targets for diagnosis and treatment. Somatostatin (SST) functions through the somatostatin receptor (SSTR). SSTR belongs to a family of G protein-coupled receptors and is a glycoprotein with seven transmembrane domains. There are five different molecular subtypes for SSTR gene, namely SSTR1˜5. SSTR is distributed extensively. Many normal cells including endocrine cells and lymphocytes express SSTR, but its expression is more common in tumors such as gastrointestinal pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (gastrinoma, insulinoma, glucagonoma), carcinoid, pituitary adenoma, pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma and medullary thyroid carcinoma than that in the normal tissues. SSTR plays an important role in the occurrence and development of a variety of human tumors.
SSTR is found in a variety of neuroendocrine tumors (NET), such as gastrointestinal pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (gastrinoma, insulinoma, glucagonoma), carcinoid, pituitary adenoma, pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, etc. Radionuclide-labeled somatostatin analogues of 99mTc and 111In, such as 99mTc-HYNIC-octreotide and 111In-DTPA-octreotide, have been used in clinic for a long time and played important roles in the diagnosis and treatment of NET. In addition, the new somatostatin derivatives are also constantly emerging or improved, such as octreotide, TATE, etc., of which, TATE has a higher affinity for SSTR2 and most NETs express more SSTR2. Internationally, 68Ga-DOTA-TATE related preclinical research has been fully carried out and 68Ga-DOTA-TATE has been applied in clinical practice in Germany and some other countries in the world. Numerous studies have shown its superiority of the diagnosis and treatment guidance for gastrointestinal pancreatic endocrine tumor, pituitary adenoma, pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma, medullary thyroid carcinoma and small cell lung cancer, and other neuroendocrine tumors.
The arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) peptide-based nuclide tracer was developed in the 1980s. It can bind with the integrin αvβ3 subunit that is highly expressed on the surface of neovascular endothelial cells and tumor cells, to display the tumor and suggest the degree of tumor neovascularization. SPECT (/CT) imaging or PET (/CT) imaging with 99mTc or 18F-labeled RGD peptides has been used in clinic in Western countries such as Europe and the United States. Some initial clinical applications are also carried out in a few units in china, suggesting that it has high safety and efficacy and is valuable for the diagnosis, staging and efficacy evaluation of a variety of tumors including breast cancer, liver cancer and glioma, etc.
The positron-emitting radionuclide-labeled peptides 68Ga-DOTA-RGD and 68Ga-DOTA-TATE have higher sensitivity and specificity to the receptor; since integrin αvβ3 and SSTR2 receptors are highly expressed in most malignant tumors and benign NET and the PET imaging has high resolution, they can quantify the absorption of tumors and organs and have better superiority than SPECT. Meanwhile, the positron-based radionuclide 68Ga3+60 is produced by a generator, with the advantages of simple production process and low cost, so the PET/CT imaging with 68Ga labeled drugs is necessary and will have higher clinical application value, to improve the detection rate of tumors; in addition, it has higher clinical significance in tumor staging and prognosis evaluation, tumor-directed surgery and therapeutic evaluation.
The object of the present invention is to design and synthesize a TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe and a preparation method thereof. The molecular probe contains two polypeptides of TATE and RGD for binding two targets on tumor cells, which is linked by PEG (PEG=polyethylene glycol) molecule, playing a role of adjusting the distance between functional groups and the pharmacokinetic properties in vivo. Compared with single-target molecular probes, this probe has higher tumor uptake and can achieve better in vivo imaging effect. The molecule can be radiolabeled by a bifunctional chelating agent NOTA-labeled radionuclide. In vivo, the radiolabeled probe is concentrated to the lesion by TATE and/or RGD polypeptide tumor cell receptor targeting, and perform imaging diagnosis and treatment of the lesions with highly expressed SSTR2 and/or integrin αvβ3 using nucleus medical positron emission tomography.
The object of the invention is achieved by the following technical solutions:
First, the present invention provides a targeting polypeptide compound having dual targets, comprising a TATE cyclic peptide structure, an RGD cyclic peptide structure and a NOTA chelating group, wherein the TATE cyclic peptide structure, the RGD cyclic peptide structure and the NOTA chelating group are respectively linked by a PEG segment having a polymerization degree of 1 to 5 or directly linked to a same glutamic acid molecule; the structure of the polypeptide compound can be simplified as NOTA-PEGn-Glu{PEGm-TATE}-PEGP-RGD, where m, n and p are an integer from 0 to 5 respectively.
In a preferred polypeptide compound herein, the TATE cyclic peptide structure, the NOTA chelating group and the RGD cyclic peptide structure are linked to a same glutamic acid molecule by a PEG segment having a degree of polymerization of 2 to 5 respectively.
In a further preferred polypeptide compound herein, the TATE cyclic peptide structure, the NOTA chelating group and the RGD cyclic peptide structure are linked to the same glutamic acid molecule by a PEG4 segment respectively.
In a further preferred polypeptide compound herein, the TATE cyclic peptide structure and the RGD cyclic peptide structure are linked to two carboxyl terminals of the same glutamic acid molecule by a PEG4 molecular segment respectively to form a stable amide bond; the NOTA chelating group is linked to the amino terminal of the same glutamic acid molecule by a PEG4 segment; the polypeptide compound is designated as NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD, and the specific structure thereof is as shown in the formula (I) below:
The present invention further provides a TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe, a radionuclide-labeled polypeptide complex, wherein the polypeptide complex takes the targeting polypeptide compound having dual targets of the invention as a ligand.
In a preferred TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe herein, the radionuclide is selected from any one of 68Ga, 64Cu, 18F, 89Zr or 177Lu; further preferably from any one of 68Ga, 64Cu or 18F. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe is a 68Ga-labeled polypeptide complex, the polypeptide complex takes the targeting polypeptide compound having dual targets of the invention as a ligand, and the TATE cyclic peptide structure, the RGD cyclic peptide structure and the NOTA chelating group of the dual-target tumor targeting polypeptide compound are linked to a same glutamic acid molecule by a PEG segment having a polymerization degree of 2 to 5.
In a most preferred embodiment of the invention, the TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe is a 68Ga-labeled polypeptide complex, the polypeptide complex takes the targeting polypeptide compound NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD having dual targets of the invention as a ligand, and the dual-target radioactive molecular probe is simply represented as 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for preparing the polypeptide compound and the dual-target radioactive molecular probe, which is easy and feasible, with a high stability of product.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following technical solutions:
1. A method of preparing a tumor targeting polypeptide compound having dual targets, comprising the following steps:
2. A method of preparing TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe, taking the preparation of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD radiopharmaceutical as an example, comprising the following steps:
The 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD radioactivity detection method, including:
Further, the analytical HPLC method in the previous step is carried out using a Waters HPLC system equipped with a Waters C18 analytical column (4.6 mm×250 mm), HPLC gradient elution conditions: 0 min, acetonitrile/water (5/95, v/v); 5 min, acetonitrile/water (5/95, v/v); 10 min, acetonitrile/water (80/20, v/v); 15 min, acetonitrile/water (100/0, v/v); 18 min , acetonitrile/water (100/0, v/v); 20 min, acetonitrile/water (5/95, v/v), 0.1% TFA in the eluent, flow rate of 1 mL/min. From the radioactive HPLC profile, the retention time of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD is 11.6 min, and the radiochemical purity is >99%.
The invention further provides applications of TATE-RGD dual-target molecular probe in the preparation of radiopharmaceuticals for SSTR2 and/or integrin αvβ3 positive lesion imaging diagnosis.
The preferred application of the invention is that the TATE-RGD dual-target molecular probe is prepared as a colorless transparent injection for small cell lung cancer imaging diagnosis.
Compared with the prior art, the TATE-RGD dual-target molecular probe has the following beneficial effects.
In order to explain the technical solutions of the present invention more clearly, the present invention will be further illustrated and described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments, but the technical solutions of the present invention are not limited to the specific embodiments and some examples described below. The chemical products and reagents used in the following embodiments herein are existing or commercially available products.
Embodiment 1
A targeting polypeptide compound having dual targets, comprising a TATE cyclic peptide structure, an RGD cyclic peptide structure and a NOTA chelating group, formed by linking the same glutamic acid molecule by the TATE cyclic peptide structure, the NOTA chelating group and the RGD cyclic peptide structure respectively, wherein the TATE cyclic peptide structure and the RGD cyclic peptide structure are linked to the two carboxyl terminals of the glutamic acid molecule through a PEG4 molecular segment respectively to form a stable amide bond; the NOTA chelating group is linked to the amino terminal of the glutamic acid molecule by a PEG4 molecule; the obtained polypeptide compound is designated as NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD, and the specific structure thereof is as shown in the formula (I) below:
A method of preparing the NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD comprises the following steps:
1) Synthesis of Compound Glu-PEG4-TATE:
9.5 mg of Fmoc-Glu(Boc)-OH (Fmoc and Boc protected glutamic acid), 25 μL of diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) and 5 μL of diethylphosphonium chloride (DECP) were added to a 20 mL glass vial containing 27.5 mg PEG4-TATE (a commercially available tumor targeting peptide dissolved in 2.6 mL dimethylformamide (DMF)), after mixed and dissolved, the mixed solution was stirred at room temperature for 2 h, then subjected to LC-MS analysis. Results showed that the Fmoc and Boc protected amino condensation polypeptide product was obtained, recorded as intermediate compound I; then 0.6 mL piperidine was added to the intermediate compound I solution and stirred at room temperature for 1 h, to remove the Fmoc protecting group of intermediate compound I and give the product Glu-PEG4-TATE. After purification by HPLC and lyophilization, about 17.5 mg of pure compound was obtained, with a yield of 68%.
2) Synthesis of Compound NOTA-2PEG4-TATE:
17.5 mg of the compound Glu-PEG4-TATE obtained in step 1) dissolved in 2 mL of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 20 μL DIPEA and 24.0 mg NOTA-PEG4-NHS (1,4,7-triazacyclononane-N,N′,N″-triacetic acid activated ester, 2 equivalents) were mixed and dissolved. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 20 min and the reaction process was monitored by HPLC. After the compound Glu-PEG4-TATE in the above step was consumed, the generation of Boc-protected NOTA-PEG4-TATE was detected by LC-MS. Then 0.1 mL of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was added to remove the protecting group Boc to obtain a target compound formed by linking glutamic acid to the PEG4 segment respectively, simply represented as NOTA-2PEG4-TATE. The mixture obtained by lyophilization and removal of the solvent DMSO was separated and purified by HPLC, and after lyophilization, about 5.5 mg of target product was obtained, with a yield of 25.6%.
3) Synthesis of Compound NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD:
In a 20 mL glass reaction vial containing 6.5 mg of NOTA-2PEG4-TATE (dissolved in 1 mL DMSO) obtained in the step 2), 6.0 mg PEG4-RGD and 10 μL DIPEA were added to mix and dissolve. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 1 h and purified by HPLC. Purification conditions: diluted with 4 mL of water and preparative HPLC (with C18 column) was applied to inject samples in two portions, and purified at a flow rate of 12 mL/min according to the following gradient. The eluent ingredients: Buffer A: 0.1% TFA in H2O; Buffer B 0.1% TFA in CH3CN; gradient elution: 0-20 min: 20-50% Buffer B. After lyophilization, about 1.5 mg of product was obtained, with a yield of 13.5% and a purity of more than 97%. The product was identified by LC-MS: [(MHH)/2]++=2930.14, and the calculated (m/z) was 2930.92 (C131H193N27O43S3). The target product NOTA-Bn-p-SCN-PEG4-Glu{PEG4-Cyclo[Arg-Gly-Asp-(D-Tyr)-Lys]}-PEG4-(D-Phe)-Cys-Tyr-(D-Trp)-Lys-Thr-Cys-Thr was determined.
Embodiment 2
A TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe comprising a TATE polypeptide, an RGD polypeptide and a radionuclide 68Ga, wherein the TATE and RGD polypeptides are linked by a PEG4 molecule to form a TATE-3PEG4-RGD polypeptide and 68Ga is linked by a NOTA. The TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe is 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD.
The method of preparing 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD dual-target radioactive molecular probe, comprising the following steps:
(1) 68Ga Rinsing
5 mL of 0.1 mol/L HCl was drawn by a 5 mL syringe to elute the germanium-gallium generator slowly, at the same time, the eluent was collected to a 1.5 mL EP tube, 1 mL per tube, a total of 5 tubes. Radioactivity determination was performed for each EP tube, and the most deactivated tube was used for labeling;
(2) Labeling of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD
1.25 mol/L sodium acetate solution was added to a 1 mL68Ga eluent, the pH of solution was adjusted to 4.0-4.5, then mixed well, and 20 μg of NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD prepared in the Embodiment 1 was added to mix well, heated to 100° C. and kept for 10 min; after the reaction was completed, the reaction solution was cooled to room temperature, and 4 mL of sterile water for injection was added, and then filtered to a sterile product bottle through a sterile filter membrane (0.22 pm, 13 mm);
(3) Quality Control
HPLC conditions: C18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm), mobile phase A: E 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid, mobile phase B: water (0.1% trifluoroacetic acid), and flow rate of 1 mL/min: 0˜5 min, mobile phase A 5%;10 min, mobile phase A: 80%; 15 min, mobile phase A: 100%; 18 min, mobile phase A: 100%; 20 min, mobile phase A 5%. The UV detection wavelength was 210 nm and the column temperature was 20° C. Radioactive detection was performed by a dedicated radioactive detector for HPLC. HPLC analysis showed that the retention time of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD was 11.6 min (
(4) Determination of In Vitro Stability
After 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD labeling, fetal bovine serum was added and the radiochemical purity was determined by HPLC at 60 and 120 min, respectively. After determination, the radiochemical purity was 98% and 97%, respectively.
The above TATE-RGD dual-target probe 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD was further prepared into a colorless transparent injection for imaging test or imaging diagnosis. The specific experiments and effects were as follows:
{circumflex over (1)} MicroPET Imaging of Small Cell Lung Cancer H69 Tumor-Bearing Mice
The tumor-bearing mice inoculated with H69 tumor subcutaneously in the right forelimb were injected with 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD injection in Embodiment 2 by tail veins at 100-200 μCi for 60 min, and then 10 min static image was collected by a Siemens Inveon micro PET (
{circumflex over (2)} MicroPET Imaging of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer A549 Tumor-Bearing Mice
The tumor-bearing mice inoculated with A549 tumors in the right forelimb were injected with 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD of injection of embodiment 2 by tail veins at 100-200 μCi for 60 min, and then 10 min static image was collected by a Siemens Inveon micro PET (
{circumflex over (4)} Biodistribution of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD in Healthy Mice
The distribution of healthy Balb/c was shown in
{circumflex over (5)} Imaging of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD in Patients with Small Cell Lung Cancer
The 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD PET/CT images of clinically diagnosed small cell lung cancer patients were shown in
{circumflex over (6)} Imaging of 68Ga-NOTA-3PEG4-TATE-RGD in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
The images of clinically diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer patients were shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201710250652.4 | Apr 2017 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2018/082782 | 4/12/2018 | WO | 00 |