• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.1209-1216
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• 2022

To better understand the effects of PEGylation and biotinylation on the delivery efficiency of proteins, the cationic protein lysozyme (LZ) and anionic protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) were chemically conjugated with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and biotin-PEG to primary amine groups of proteins using N-hydroxysuccinimide reactions. Four types of protein conjugates were successfully prepared: PEGylated LZ (PEG-LZ), PEGylated BSA (PEG-BSA), biotin-PEG-conjugated LZ (Bio-PEG-LZ), and biotin-PEG-conjugated BSA (Bio-PEG-BSA). PEG-LZ and Bio-PEG-LZ exhibited a lower intracellular uptake than that of LZ in A549 human lung cancer cells (in a two-dimensional culture). However, Bio-PEG-BSA showed significantly improved intracellular delivery as compared to that of PEG-BSA and BSA, probably because of favorable interactions with cells via biotin receptors. For A549/fibroblast coculture spheroids, PEG-LZ and PEG-BSA exhibited significantly decreased tissue penetration as compared with that of unmodified proteins. However, Bio-PEG-BSA showed tissue penetration comparable to that of unmodified BSA. In addition, citraconlyated LZ (Cit-LZ) showed reduced spheroid penetration as compared to that of LZ, probably owing to a decrease in protein charge. Taken together, chemical conjugation of targeting ligands-PEG to anionic proteins could be a promising strategy to improve intracellular delivery and in vivo activity, whereas modifications of cationic proteins should be more delicately designed.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2006

CKD-602 exerts its antitumor effect via inhibition of topoisomerase I in cancer cells. Multicellular spheroid (MCS) and Multicellular layers (MCLs) are known as in vitro 3-dimensional models which closely represent tumor conditions in vivo. In order to investigate the potential of CKD-602 against human colorectal tumors, we evaluated the anti-proliferative activity and penetration ability of CKD-602 in MCS and MCL cultures of DLD-l human colorectal cancer cells, respectively. The maximum effects($E_{max}$) induced by CKD-602 were significantly lower in MCS compared to monolayers (48% vs 92%). With prolonged drug exposure, the $IC_{50's}$ of CKD-602 decreased to $23.5{\pm}1.0nM$ in monolayers after 24 h exposure and $42.3{\pm}1.7nM$ in MCS after 6 days, respectively. However, no further increase in effect was observed for exposure time longer than growth doubling time (Td) in both cultures. Activity of CKD-602 was significantly reduced after penetration through MCL and also with cell-free insert membrane. In conclusion, CKD-602 showed significantly decreased anti-proliferative activity in 3D cultures (MCS) of human colorectal cancer cells. Tumor penetration of CKD-602 could not be determined due to loss of activity after penetration through cell free insert membrane, which warrants further evaluation using a modified model.