Discovery and Evaluation of TLR-Targeted Immune Agonists

Toll-like receptor (TLR) activation converts immunologically inactive tumors into immunologically active tumors by activating tumor residing antigen-presenting cells and recruitment of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Targeted immune agonists (TIAs) are antibody drug conjugates with small-molecule TLR agonist payloads. The mechanism of action of TIAs involves tumor antigen recognition, Fcγ-receptor-dependent phagocytosis, and TLR-mediated activation to drive tumor killing by myeloid cells. Several new low DAR anti-HER2 TIAs conjugated with novel TLR7 or dual-TLR7/8 agonists with cleavable and noncleavable linkers were synthesized and profiled. In vitro studies demonstrated that these TIAs activate myeloid cells only in the presence of antigen-expressing cancer cells. Evaluation in ELISpot-based assays confirmed the low immunogenicity of these constructs. Systemic administration of the novel TIAs in tumor-bearing mice resulted in tumor reduction at low doses. These results provide a strong rationale for further development of the TIAs as a novel class of immunotherapeutics.