Antibody conjugates of 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN-38) for targeted cancer chemotherapy

CPT-11 is a clinically used cancer drug, and it is a prodrug of the potent topoisomerase I inhibitor, SN-38 (7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin). To bypass the need for the in vivo conversion of CPT-11 and increase the therapeutic index, bifunctional derivatives of SN-38 were prepared for use in antibody-based targeted therapy of cancer. The general synthetic scheme incorporated an acetylene-azide click cycloaddition step in the design, a short polyethylene glycol spacer for aqueous solubility, and a maleimide group for conjugation. Conjugates of a humanized anti-CEACAM5 monoclonal antibody, hMN-14, prepared using these SN-38 derivatives were evaluated in vitro for stability in buffer and human serum and for antigen-binding and cytotoxicity in a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line. Conjugates of hMN-14 and SN-38 derivatives 16 and 17 were found promising for further development.