Development of potent monoclonal antibody auristatin conjugates for cancer therapy

We describe the in vitro and in vivo properties of monoclonal antibody (mAb)-drug conjugates consisting of the potent synthetic dolastatin 10 analogs auristatin E (AE) and monomethylauristatin E (MMAE), linked to the chimeric mAbs cBR96 (specific to Lewis Y on carcinomas) and cAC10 (specific to CD30 on hematological malignancies). The linkers used for conjugate formation included an acid-labile hydrazone and protease-sensitive dipeptides, leading to uniformly substituted conjugates that efficiently released active drug in the lysosomes of antigen-positive (Ag+) tumor cells. The peptide-linked mAb-valine-citrulline-MMAE and mAb-phenylalanine-lysine-MMAE conjugates were much more stable in buffers and plasma than the conjugates of mAb and the hydrazone of 5-benzoylvaleric acid-AE ester (AEVB). As a result, the mAb-Val-Cit-MMAE conjugates exhibited greater in vitro specificity and lower in vivo toxicity than corresponding hydrazone conjugates. In vivo studies demonstrated that the peptide-linked conjugates induced regressions and cures of established tumor xenografts with therapeutic indices as high as 60-fold. These conjugates illustrate the importance of linker technology, drug potency and conjugation methodology in developing safe and efficacious mAb-drug conjugates for cancer therapy.