Patent Application
20240041833
The present invention relates to pharmaceutical products and in particular to pharmaceutical combination products. The invention further relates to uses of such products in medical treatment. Embodiments of the invention have been particularly developed as pharmaceutical combination products of a protoparvovirus and an antiviral benzimidazole derivative or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or prodrug of the benzimidazole derivative for use in the treatment of cancer and will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.
Any discussion of the background art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Recent advances in diagnosis and treatment of cancer (e.g. development of novel immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade) have led to a significant improvement of the five-year relative cancer survival (1). However, for some tumours such as glioblastoma, lung cancer or pancreatic carcinoma effective treatments are still lacking such that novel therapeutic options are needed. One promising approach is the use of oncolytic viruses (OVs) (2-4).
OVs are self-propagating viruses that are known for their oncotoxicity, i.e. for their ability to specifically infect and replicate in cancer cells inducing their lysis, while sparing non-cancerous cells. In addition to the release of new viral particles into the tumour bed leading to further infection of tumour cells, an OV's oncotoxicity is also linked to the release of pathogen/danger-associated molecular patterns (P/DAMPs) and tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) from the infected cells. These factors, trigger the infiltration of immune cells into the tumour microenvironment (TME) and the induction of anti-cancer immune responses (5). Due to their oncotoxicity (i.e. their anti-cancer effects) no less than 40 different OVs belonging to at least nine different virus families are presently being tested in early or late phases of clinical trials against various malignancies. One critical milestone was achieved in 2015 with marketing approval was granted in the US and in Europe for an engineered oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) encoding GM-CSF (talimogene laherparepvec, T-Vec, Imlygic™) for use in the treatment of malignant metastatic melanoma (6). There is justified optimism in the field that other OVs may be approved for use in the treatment of other cancers in the near future (7). However, while objective responses and promising therapeutic benefits have been observed for a number of OVs, OV treatment as a monotherapy so far rarely reproduced the impressive results obtained in preclinical studies and, therefore, OVs regularly appear to be insufficient as a standalone cancer treatments because they fail to induce complete tumour regression.
As such, major efforts are directed towards improving OVs clinical outcome and include the quest to identify other anti-cancer modalities, which might be able to synergise with an OV's oncotoxicity, for use in combination with OVs such as to increase oncotoxicity without increasing undesirable side-effects. Promising results have been achieved using combinations of an OV, namely of the protoparvovirus H-1PV, with cytotoxic anti-cancer agents such as with traditional chemotherapeutic agents (described in WO 2009/083232 A1), with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors (described in WO 2011/113600 A1) or with Bcl-2 (described in WO 2015/010782).
H-1 PV is a small (˜25 nm in diameter), non-enveloped icosahedral particle containing a 5.1 kb long single-stranded DNA genome (8). The genomic organization of H-1PV consists of two transcriptional units under the control of two promoters, the P4 early promoter and P38 late promoter. P4 regulates the expression of the gene encoding for the non-structural (NS) proteins (NS1 and NS2) and the P38 the one encoding for the capsid (VP) proteins (VP1, VP2, VP3) (8). The virus multiplies preferentially in fast dividing cancer cells. Without wanting to be bound by theory, this oncoselectivity is not based on a better uptake of the virus by cancerous cells, but rather is due to the fact that cancer cells overexpress factors such as cyclin A, E2F, or CREB/ATF required for virus DNA replication. Furthermore, cancer cells are often defective in their ability to mount an efficient antiviral immune response favouring viral multiplication (9). The virus is known to activate multiple cell death pathways. Depending on cell type and growing conditions, H-1PV may induce apoptosis (10-14), necrosis (15), or cathepsin B-dependent cell death (16). The virus was able to induce oncolysis even in cancer cells resistant to TRAIL (Tumour Necrosis Factor Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand), cisplatin and even when Bcl-2 was overexpressed (16).
In the context of cancer therapy, it has long been established that some cancer cells evade the cytotoxic effects of anti-cancer agents by being resistant or by acquiring resistance to such agents. For example, cancers resistant and/or refractory to the treatment with traditional chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin have long been described (16). Similarly, cancers resistant to cytotoxic HDAC and Bcl-2 inhibitors have also been described. (17,18).
Therefore, there is a need in the art to reconsider the rationale underlying new OV combination products such as to provide novel combination products based on an OV and a secondary compound with improved activity against the cancer. In particular, there is a need in the art for pharmaceutical combination products comprising an OV and a secondary compound, which enhance the OV's initial oncotoxicity but where the secondary compound itself is not an anti-cancer agent known to be possibly ineffective due to pre-existing or acquired resistance of the targeted cancer cell.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide pharmaceutical combination products for improved protoparvovirus-based therapy.
The present invention provides a solution to the above-formulated problem based on the inventors' surprising finding that certain benzimidazole derivatives of Formula I, known for their anti-viral activity, enhance the oncotoxic effects of a protoparvovirus.
Accordingly, in a first aspect, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical combination product comprising:
The symbol “#″” shown in the respective structures of A′ and A″ does not indicate an atom but rather the junction of the indicated bond to an atom of the benzimidazole derivative of Formula I.
Further, in instances where A′ and/or A″ comprise one or more carbon atoms forming chiral centres within the respective substituents, A′ and/or A″ will conform in their stereochemical orientation according to the constraints due to steric hindrance within the structure of the benzimidazole derivative of Formula I as well as due to the constraints due to steric hindrance within the structure of each of (A1) to (A17) themselves.
Preferably:
In particular embodiments of this first aspect, the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula I is the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula Ia:
In particular embodiments of this first aspect, the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula I is the 1:1 acetone solvate of Formula Ib:
Importantly, the pharmaceutical combination product according to the first aspect is particularly suitable for use in medical treatment of a patient, such as cancer treatment and, in particular, in the treatment of solid tumours (such as brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, renal cancer, lung cancer or ovarian cancer) or in the treatment of cancer-initiating precursor cells.
As such, in further aspects, the present invention also relates to a method of treatment, said method comprising administering
Similarly, in a further aspect, the present invention also relates to use of
In all of the above aspects, when used in cancer treatment, the pharmaceutical combination product increases a cancer's susceptibility to protoparvovirus oncotoxicity compared to said cancer's susceptibility to an equivalent dose of protoparvovirus alone. Importantly, this susceptibility is even increased, when the pharmaceutical combination product of the invention is used in the treatment otherwise of a cancer resistant or refractory to protoparvovirus oncotoxicity.
Embodiments of the invention are described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
In order to provide a clear and consistent understanding of the specification and claims, and the scope to be given such terms, the following definitions are provided.
The term “pharmaceutical combination product” in the context of this disclosure includes a product in which a single composition comprises both active ingredients (a) a protoparvovirus and (b) an antiviral benzimidazole derivative. However, the term also includes a product, such as a kit, in which the two active ingredients (a) protoparvovirus and (b) antiviral benzimidazole derivative are provided in separate compositions, possibly even for simultaneous or sequential administration via the same or a different route of administration. For example, a pharmaceutical combination product in the context of the present disclosure may comprise a formulation of (a) the protoparvovirus adapted for intratumoural administration (such as a liquid for intratumoural injection), and a formulation of (b) the antiviral benzimidazole derivative adapted for oral administration (such as a tablet).
An antiviral benzimidazole derivative in accordance with the present disclosure may be converted into a pharmaceutically acceptable salt by methods well known in the art. In the context of the present invention, the term a “pharmaceutically acceptable salt” includes acid addition salts, formed with inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid, hydro bromic acid, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, and the like; or formed with organic acids such as glycolic acid, pyruvic acid, lactic acid, malonic acid, malic acid, inaleic acid, fumaric acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, 3-(4-hydroxybenzoyl)benzoic acid, cinnamic acid, mandelic acid, methane sulfonic acid, ethanesulfonic acid, 1,2-ethane-disulfonic acid, 2-hydroxyethanesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, 4-chiorobenzenesulfonic acid, 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid, 4-toluenesulfonic acid, camphorsulfonic acid, lauryl sulphuric acid, gluconic acid, glutamic acid, salicylic acid, muconic acid, and the like. The term “pharmaceutically acceptable salt” further includes basic addition salts formed with the conjugate bases of any one of the above-listed inorganic acids, wherein the conjugate bases comprise a cationic component selected from Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, and NHgR′4-g+; in which R′ is a C1-3 alkyl and g is a number selected from among 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. It should be understood that all references to a “pharmaceutically acceptable salt” also include solvent addition forms (solvates) or crystal forms (polymorphs) of the respective acid addition salt.
The term “prodrug” in the context of this disclosure refers to a compound that, upon administration to a patient, is capable of providing (directly or indirectly) one of the antiviral benzimidazole derivatives described herein or an active metabolite or residue thereof. “Prodrugs” can increase the bioavailability of the compounds of the presently disclosed subject matter when such compounds are administered to a subject (e.g., by allowing an orally administered compound to be more readily absorbed into the blood) or can enhance the delivery of the compound to a particular biological compartment (e.g., cell, tissue, biological system).
In the context of the present disclosure, the term “medical treatment of a patient” includes any medical treatment of a human or a non-human mammalian patient such as, without limitation, horses, cattle, dogs and cats. Expressly, the term includes treatment of liquid or solid tumours as well as of disseminated metastases and treatment targeting cancer-initiating precursor cells. The term “liquid tumours” here expressly includes haematological cancers such as lymphomas and leukaemias, in particular Burkitt-lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The term “solid tumours” here expressly includes: solid tumours of brain cancers (e.g. glioblastoma), pancreatic cancers (e.g. pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma), renal cancers (e.g. renal cell carcinoma), lung cancers (e.g. small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)), breast cancers (e.g. adenocarcinomas of the breast), cervical cancers (e.g. squamous cell carcinomas of the cervix), colorectal cancers (e.g. adenocarcinomas of the colon), skin cancers (e.g. melanoma); bone cancers (e.g. osteosarcoma) and ovarian cancers (e.g. epithelial ovarian carcinomas).
In the context of the present disclosure, the term “protoparvovirus oncotoxicity” includes oncolytic as well as oncosuppressive activities of protoparvovirus. These activities are—typically but without limitation—consequences of “protoparvovirus oncotropism”, i.e. through the virus' selectivity for or preferential infection of cancer cells (“oncoselectivity”), which leads to effective virus distribution in the tumour bed (even after intranasal of systemic virus entry), while sparing normal cells or healthy tissues. H-1 PV's intrinsic oncotropism and oncoselectivity are complex phenomena based on multiple molecular determinants, which are underrepresented in normal cells, but characteristic of tumour cells, e.g. less stringent control of DNA replication, the dysregulation of signalling pathways and the impaired innate antiviral immune response in cancer cells. Protoparvovirus oncotoxicity in the context of this application also includes indirect effects such as immunogenic responses against the cancer cells triggered by protoparvovirus (including oncolytic effects on cells of a targeted tumour, which are not infected by the virus), presumably mediated through the protoparvovirus' ability to reshape the tumour micro environment.
In addition to the above definitions, and unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise”, “comprising”, and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to”.
Further, reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment”, “some embodiments” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment”, “in some embodiments” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.
As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.
As used herein, the term “exemplary” is used in the sense of providing examples, as opposed to indicating quality. That is, an “exemplary embodiment” is an embodiment provided as an example, as opposed to necessarily being an embodiment of exemplary quality.
As indicated above, the present invention is based on the inventors' surprising finding that certain benzimidazole derivatives of Formula I, anti-viral agents, enhances the oncotoxic effects of a protoparvovirus.
As such, the invention relates to a pharmaceutical combination product comprising:
In particular embodiments of this first aspect, the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula I is the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula Ia:
For example, in a particular embodiments of this first aspect, the antiviral benzimidazole derivative of Formula I is the 1:1 acetone solvate of Formula Ib:
H-1PV is a rat protoparvovirus presently under clinical evaluation (19). A phase I/IIa clinical study in glioblastoma patients demonstrated that H-1 PV treatment is safe, well tolerated and associated with first surrogate signs of anti-cancer efficacy. These are: (i) its ability to cross the blood/tumour brain barrier after systemic administration, (ii) its good distribution in the tumour with evidence of virus replication, (iii) the induction of tumour necrosis, (iv) the immune conversion of the tumour microenvironment, and (v) the improved overall survival in comparison to historical controls (12). However, H-1PV monotherapy, as seen for other OVs, was unable to eradicate the tumours. After an initial phase in which H-1PV treatment led to tumour growth arrest and in some cases tumour regression, the tumour restarted to grow, indicating that some tumour cells escaped the treatment. As seen for many other anti-cancer agents, H-1 PV resistant cancer cells may emerge, especially in the context of highly heterogeneous tumours.
H-1 PV is a single-stranded DNA virus with an icosahedral capsid. Its genome contains the P4 and P38 promoters which controls the expression of NS and VP gene units, respectively. NS encodes for the non-structural proteins NS1 and NS2 while VP the capsid proteins VP1 and VP2 and the non-structural SAT protein12. In addition, to be non-pathogenic to humans, H-1PV is endowed with natural oncotoxicity, i.e. with oncolytic and oncosuppressive properties against a broad range of different tumours (19,21). However, as seen in the clinical studies, also at the preclinical level it was observed that not all cancer cell lines respond equally to H-1 PV oncotoxicity, wherein some cell line cultures were found to be less sensitive or even refractory to virus infection. H-1 PV has been successfully combined with other anti-cancer agents such as radiotherapy, gemcitabine, HDAC inhibitors, BH3 mimetics, bevacizumab, immune checkpoint blockade, obtaining in some cases synergistic anti-cancer effects (18). However, these agents are used in cancer treatment themselves, thus, cancer resistance to these agents may have already developed such that, at the time when these agents are combined with the virus, the efficacy of co-treatment is reduced.
Thus, the present invention, namely the combination of a protoparvovirus with an anti-viral agent that enhances protoparvovirus oncotoxicity not a known anti-cancer agent, addresses this important problem in the field.
Ledipasvir (LDV;
Here, it is described—for the first time—that low doses of an antiviral benzimidazole derivative or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts or prodrugs as described above, potentiate H-1 PV oncotoxicity in a synergistic manner.
As such, a novel, alternative use of the anti-viral benzimidazole derivative of Formula Ia, LDV, as a booster of H-1PV oncotoxicity is provided. Notably, LDV enhances the H-1PV oncolytic activity also in cancer cell lines particularly resistant to monotherapy with H-1 PV.
Importantly, the pharmaceutical combination product of the present invention may comprise (a) the protoparvovirus and (b) the antiviral benzimidazole derivative as separate entities. As such, the combination product may be a kit, preferably for use in medical treatment such as cancer treatment, comprising a protoparvovirus composition and a separate antiviral benzimidazole derivative composition for simultaneous or sequential administration.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the two separate entities of a pharmaceutical combination product of the invention (i.e. such as a kit) may be formulated for the same or for distinct routes of administration. For example, the protoparvovirus composition may be formulated for intratumoural or systemic or intranasal administration, while the antiviral benzimidazole derivative composition may be formulated for intratumoural or systemic or oral administration. In preferred embodiments, (a) the protoparvovirus is formulated for intratumoural administration and (b) the antiviral benzimidazole derivative is formulated for oral administration.
In alternative embodiments, the pharmaceutical combination product of the present invention may comprise (a) the protoparvovirus and (b) the antiviral benzimidazole derivative in a single composition. For example, both (a) and (b) may be formulated for intratumoural or systemic administration.
As explained above, the pharmaceutical combination product of the present invention is particularly suitable for use in medical treatment, especially for use in cancer treatment, of a patient. The cancer treatment in this context (and as expressly defined above) includes the treatment of solid tumours and/or the targeting of cancer-initiating precursor cells or small disseminated metastasis. In particular embodiments of the invention, the solid tumours are tumours caused by brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, renal cancer, lung cancer or ovarian cancer.
As explained above, the pharmaceutical combination of the present invention increases a cancer's susceptibility to protoparvovirus oncotoxicity compared to said cancer's susceptibility to an equivalent dose of protoparvovirus alone. Given that, at the doses used, LDV does not show any oncotoxicity or anti-cancer effect itself, it synergises with the protoparvovirus to enhance the oncotoxicity of the virus.
In some of these embodiments, the pharmaceutical combination product for use according to the invention allows for the treatment of a cancer typically resistant or refractory to protoparvovirus oncotoxicity.
The invention is further described by the following non-limiting Examples.
Methods and Materials
Cell Lines and Culture Media
The human glioblastoma derived cell lines U-373 and U-251 were provided by Dr. Iris Augustin (DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany). Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) derived cell lines AsPC-1, Panc-1 and BxPC-3 were purchased from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and provided by LGC standards GmbH, Wesel, Germany. The lung cancer derived A-549 and HOP-62, prostate carcinoma derived PC3 and DU-145, glioma derived SNB-19, breast cancer derived T47D, Ovarian cancer derived OVCAR-8 and clear cell renal carcinoma derived Caki-I were obtained from the National Cancer Institute (NCI, Bethesda, MD, USA). U-373, U-251 and Panc-1 cell lines were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Luis, MO, USA). All other human cancer cell lines were grown in Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium 1640 (RPMI, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Luis, MO, USA). All media were supplemented with 10% heat inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS, Sigma), 2 mM L-Glutamine (Gibco, Thermo Scientific, Waltham, USA). DMEM medium was also supplemented with 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 μg/ml streptomycin. All cells were grown at 37° C. in 5% CO2, 95% humidity and routinely checked for mycoplasma contamination.
FDA Approved Drug Library Screening
Identification of the benzimidazole derivatives useful in the present invention was achieved through screening of panels of FDA-approved drugs (SelleckChem library: http://www.selleckchem.com/screening/fda-approved-drug-library.html; Selleck Chemicals LLC, Houston, TX, USA). The screening was performed with the Agilent BioCel automated workstation housed in an Ermaflux L2 biosafety cabinet (equipped with charcoal filters to trap gases). The glioma cell lines SNB-19 and U-373 were used for the screening. Cells were seeded with the BRAVO pipettor in 384 well cell culture microplate at 15% confluence in medium supplemented with 10% FBS and penicillin/streptomycin. After overnight incubation half of the plates was infected with wild-type H-1 PV at MOI of 1 plaque forming unit (pfu)/cell, the other half kept untreated. All cells were then treated with 5 concentrations of each of the 1,443 compounds (5-point dose curve incorporating a 4-fold dilution step in duplicates, range 4-0.156 μM). After 72 h, mock and infected cells were then incubated with PrestoBlue® cell viability reagent for 1 hour (resazurin-based; Thermofisher Scientific, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France). PrestoBlue® is a cell viability indicator by using the reducing power of living cells to quantitatively measure the proliferation of cells. The PrestoBlue® reagent contains a cell-permeant compound that is blue in colour and virtually non-fluorescent. When added to cells, the PrestoBlue® reagent is modified by the reducing environment of the viable cell and becomes highly fluorescent. Conversion is proportional to the number of metabolically active cells and therefore can be measured quantitatively. Quantitation of fluorescent signal intensity of the cell culture supernatant was carried out using the HTS-ready Berthold MITHRAS LB 940 fluorescent plate reader at excitation and emission wavelengths of 569/586 nm (reduced resazurin form resorufin). All screening plates were subjected to stringent quality control measures using Z-factor score analysis using the GraphPad Prism software and available R-packages.
LDH Assay
In an lactate dehydrogenase assay (LDH assay) LDH released from a cell, e.g. due to cell lysis, oxidizes lactate to generate NADH, which then in turn reacts with a colorimetric substrate to generate a quantifiable colour change, which is directly correlated to the amount of LDH released and can, as such, used as a measure of cell lysis.
Cancer cell lines were seeded at a density of 3,000 (U-251, BxPC-3, Panc-1, DU-145, A-549, HOP-62 and Caki-1) or 4,000 (SNB-19, AsPC-1, PC3 and U-373) cells/well in 96-well plates in 50 μl of their respective culture medium supplemented with 10% heat inactivated FBS. After 24 h, 50 μl of FBS-free medium with or without H-1PV and/or Ledipasvir (LDV; Selleck Chemicals LLC, Houston, TX, USA) was added. Cells were incubated for 3-5 days and then subjected to lactase dehydrogenase LDH assay (CytoTox 96 non-radioactive cytotoxicity assay, Promega Madison, WI, USA), according to the manufacturer's instructions. For each condition tested, six replicates were prepared of which three were used for calculating the total lysis in the presence of detergent as previously described (25).
MTT Assay
For the analysis of cell viability, the metabolic activity of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent cellular oxidoreductase enzymes was assessed by MTT assays, as previously described (26). These enzymes catalyses the reduction of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) to a soluble coloured formazan dye. The absorbance of the formazan dye was measured at 595 nm by using an ELISA plate reader. Cells were plated in 96 well plates at the density of 3,000 cells/well in 50 μl of their respective culture medium supplemented with 10% heat inactivated FBS. After 24 h, 50 μl of FBS-free medium with or without H-1PV and/or LDV was added. The viability of infected cells was expressed as the ratio of the corresponding absorbance to that of non-infected cells taken arbitrarily as 100%. The mean percentage of MTT activity was calculated from at least three replicates for each condition tested.
Virus Production, Purification and Titration
Wild type H1-PV was produced and purified as previously described (27). Virus titration was carried out by quantitative real-time PCR and plaque assay according to the methods described in (26). Viral DNA was extracted using Qiamp MiniElute Virus Spin Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer's instruction manual.
Real-Time Detection of Cell Viability and Proliferation
Human cancer cells were seeded into a 96-well E-plate (ACEA Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA) at a density of 4000 cells/well. After 24 h, cells were infected or not with H-1PV and grown in the presence or absence of LDV. Growth of mock treated cells and virus infected cells was monitored in real-time every 30 min, for 6 days using the xCELLIgence System (ACEA). Cell proliferation was expressed as normalized cell index (CI), a parameter directly proportional to the number of attached cells per well and, therefore, strictly correlated with cell proliferation and viability. The growth curves represent the averages of the results of at least three replicates
In order to improve H-1PV clinical outcome, it is essential to identify anti-cancer agents that can enhance its oncotoxicity. To this end, the FDA-approved drug library (SelleckChem library: http://www.selleckchem.com/screening/fda-approved-drug-library.html) was screened. The library includes 1,443 compounds belonging to different functional classes, e.g. anti-cancer drugs, COX2 inhibitors, anti-inflammatories, anti-diabetics, anti-arthritics, anti-coagulants, etc., selected in order to maximize chemical and pharmaceutical diversity. Being FDA approved and already in use in the clinic, these compounds have known and well characterized bioactivities and have undergone extensive safety and bioavailability testing. The drugs were tested alone or in combination with H-1PV in SNB-19 and U-373 glioma cells. As a positive control for the screening ABT-737—a BH3 mimetic that inhibits pro-survival Bcl-2 family members (often overexpressed in cancer cells)—was used. ABT-737 was previously shown to enhance H-1PV oncotoxicity in a synergistic manner both in vitro (using different cancer cell lines of different origins) and in vivo (xenograft rat model of human pancreatic carcinoma) (28).
In agreement with these results, ABT-737 synergized with H-1PV in killing SNB-19 and U-373 glioma cells in the drug screening (data not shown). Among top candidates, positive results were also obtained with three other drugs (ABT-199, ABT-263 and LDV). Of note, ABT-199 and ABT-263, are also BH3 mimetics belonging to the same family of ABT-737. These results provide further evidence that BH3 mimetics synergize with H-1PV in killing cancer cells and also provide confidence on the validity of the screening procedure. In conclusion, and as shown in
Specifically,
Two glioblastoma cell lines (SNB-19 and U-373) and a pancreatic cell line (AsPC-1) displaying different susceptibility to H-1 PV infection were treated (or not) with increasing amounts of H-1PV (MOI, pfu/cell) in the presence or absence of 4 μM LDV. At 4 days post-treatment, at the concentration used, LDV did not induce any evident cytotoxic effects and cells were growing similarly to untreated cells. On the contrary, evident signs of cytopathic effects and morphological changes were observed in all three H-1PV treated cancer cell lines resulting in a lower density of cells attached to the culture plates. Cytopathic effects were more marked in H-1PV/LDV co-treated cancer cell lines, showing that low doses of the drug potentiate H-1PV oncotoxicity (
Specifically,
The xCELLIgence system allows the monitoring in real time of cell proliferation and viability. This system was used to confirm the anti-cancer effect of H-1PV/LDV co-treatment. Three cancer cell lines were used for these experiments, namely glioma cell lines SNB-19 and SNB-19, and pancreatic carcinoma cell line AsPC-1. Cells were treated (or not) with H-1PV in the presence or absence of LDV. Cell proliferation was monitored every 30 min for a total of 150 hours. In agreement with previous observation (
Specifically,
To further confirm the results shown in Examples 1-3, the oncolytic activity of H-1PV/LDV combination, was analysed by LDH assays. Human SNB-19 (glioma), AsPC-1 (pancreatic carcinoma), and PC3 (prostate cancer) cell lines were infected (or not) with H-1 PV in the absence or presence of increasing concentrations of LDV. At the concentrations used, LDV alone did not induce cell lysis and H-1PV triggered cell lysis only in a small fraction of the cells. Cell lysis was much stronger in H-1PV/LDV co-treated cells, providing evidence of synergistic oncolytic activity between the two agents (
Specifically,
U-373 glioma cells treated (or not) with 4 μM LDV were infected (or not) with increasing viral MOIs (pfu/cell) and treatment-induced cell lysis was assessed by LDH assay. Under our experimental conditions, LDV did not induce cell lysis (
Specifically,
H-1 PV can target and kill a broad spectrum of cancer cell lines from different tumour entities. The positive results shown in Examples 1 to 5, led to further analysis of whether the enhancement effect of LDV on H-1 PV oncolysis can generally be obtained in other cancer cell lines displaying different susceptibility to H-1PV killing activity. To this end the H-1PV/LDV combination was further tested in additional seven cancer cell lines from different tumour entities, namely glioma (U-251), pancreatic carcinoma (BxPC-3 and Panc-1) prostate (Du-145), lung (A-549 and Hop-62) and clear cell renal carcinoma (Caki-1). Cells were treated (or not) with H-1 PV, LDV or the two agents in combination. Treatment-induced cell lysis was analysed by LDH assay. In agreement with the results shown in
Specifically,
In order to further confirm the results shown in Examples 1-6, with an independent method, cell viability was evaluated using MTT assays. U-251 (glioma), BxPC-3 and Panc-1 (pancreatic carcinoma), A-549 and HOP-62 (lung carcinoma), Caki-1 (kidney clear cell carcinoma) and OVCAR-8 (ovary adenocarcinoma) were infected (or not) with H-1PV in the presence or absence of LDV. At 72-96 hour post-treatment, cells were subjected to MTT assays. In agreement with previous results, also MTT assays confirmed decreased viability in H-1PV/LDV co-treated cells in comparison with singly treated cells (
Specifically,
Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention set forth herein will come to mind to the one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing description and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20216171.7 | Dec 2020 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2021/086283 | 12/16/2021 | WO |
