Fusion protein mediated prodrug activation (FMPA) in vivo

A two component system, consisting of a fusion protein and an appropriate prodrug, suited to perform selective tumor therapy in vivo, is presented. The fusion protein, owing to its humanized carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-specific variable region, specifically binds to CEA-expressing tumors and has an enzymatic activity comparable to human beta-glucuronidase. The prodrug is a nontoxic glucuronide-spacer-derivative of doxorubicin decomposing to doxorubicin by enzymatic deglucuronidation. In vivo studies in nude mice bearing human CEA-expressing tumor xenografts revealed that 7 d after injection of 20 mg/kg fusion protein, a high specificity ratio (> 100:1) was obtained between tumor and plasma. Injection of 250 mg/kg of prodrug at d 7 resulted in tumor therapeutic effects superior to conventional chemotherapy without any detectable toxicity. These superior therapeutic effects that were observed using established human tumor xenografts can be explained by the approx 10-fold higher drug concentrations found in tumors of mice treated with fusion protein and prodrug than in those treated with the maximal tolerable dose of drug alone.