Tunneling Nanotube Inhibitors for Cancer Immunotherapy

摘要 在最近发表在《自然纳米技术》上的一项研究中，我们证明了癌细胞以物理形式 纳米鳞片触手(纳米管)与免疫细胞连接并从免疫细胞中获取线粒体。是这样的 线粒体劫持代谢耗尽了免疫细胞，增加了癌细胞。这些 这些发现具有重要的意义，因为它是癌症逃避免疫的一种新机制 细胞，这会限制免疫检查点抑制剂的疗效。在这里，我们建议开发下一步- 可以扰乱这种新的免疫逃避现象的世代免疫疗法。我们是专门的 开发新型的胞囊复合体小分子抑制剂，我们已经在上面提到过 现象。我们的初步结果表明，这样的小分子可以发挥强大的抗肿瘤作用。 功效，增强经典的免疫检查点抑制剂，并显示出极好的安全性。在目标1中。 我们将在体外合成和表征外囊抑制剂，以验证合理设计的假设 胞囊复合体的小分子抑制剂可以抑制纳米管的组装。瞄准了。2.我们将建立 外囊抑制药在体内的安全药理。在目标3中，我们将检验这样一种假设 通过免疫检查点抑制剂，抑制剂可以改善抗肿瘤效果。实现这些目标将导致 对一种新的癌症免疫细胞通讯机制的基本见解。我们的预赛 结果表明，胞囊抑制物可作为一种新的免疫治疗方法出现。

ABSTRACT In a recent study published in Nature Nanotechnology, we demonstrated that cancer cells form physical nanoscales tentacles (nanotubes) to connect with and harvest mitochondria from immune cells. Such mitochondria hijacking metabolically depleted the immune cells and augmented the cancer cells. These findings have significant implications as it emerges as a novel mechanism of immune evasion by cancer cells, which can limit the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Here we propose to develop next- generation immunotherapies that can perturb this novel immune evasion phenomenon. We are specifically developing novel small molecule inhibitors of the exocyst complex, which we have implicated in the above phenomenon. Our preliminary results show that such small molecules can exert a powerful antitumor efficacy, augment classical immune checkpoint inhibitors and display an excellent safety profile. In Aim 1. We will synthesize and characterize exocyst inhibitors in vitro to test the hypothesis that rationally designed small molecule inhibitors of the exocyst complex can inhibit nanotube assembly. In Aim. 2. We will establish the safety pharmacology of exocyst inhibitors in vivo. In Aim 3, we will test the hypothesis that exocyst inhibitors can improve antitumor outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Achieving these aims will lead to fundamental insights into a new mechanism of cancer-immune cell communication. Our preliminary results indicate exocyst inhibitors can emerge as a new class of immunotherapy.