Bronchioalveolar organoids: A preclinical tool to screen toxicity associated with antibody-drug conjugates

Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2024 Apr:485:116886. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2024.116886. Epub 2024 Mar 6.

Abstract

Despite extensive preclinical testing, cancer therapeutics can result in unanticipated toxicity to non-tumor tissue in patients. These toxicities may pass undetected in preclinical experiments due to modeling limitations involving poor biomimicry of 2-dimensional in vitro cell cultures and due to lack of interspecies translatability in in vivo studies. Instead, primary cells can be grown into miniature 3-dimensional structures that recapitulate morphological and functional aspects of native tissue, termed "organoids." Here, human bronchioalveolar organoids grown from primary alveolar epithelial cells were employed to model lung epithelium and investigate off-target toxicities associated with antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). ADCs with three different linker-payload combinations (mafodotin, vedotin, and deruxtecan) were tested in bronchioalveolar organoids generated from human, rat, and nonhuman primate lung cells. Organoids demonstrated antibody uptake and changes in viability in response to ADC exposure that model in vivo drug sensitivity. RNA sequencing identified inflammatory activation in bronchioalveolar cells in response to deruxtecan. Future studies will explore specific cell populations involved in interstitial lung disease and incorporate immune cells to the culture.

Keywords: Antibody-drug conjugate; Cytotoxicity; Deruxtecan; Lung; Mafodotin; Organoid; Vedotin.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Alveolar Epithelial Cells / drug effects
  • Alveolar Epithelial Cells / pathology
  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods
  • Humans
  • Immunoconjugates* / toxicity
  • Macaca fascicularis
  • Organoids* / drug effects
  • Organoids* / pathology
  • Pulmonary Alveoli / drug effects
  • Pulmonary Alveoli / pathology
  • Rats
  • Toxicity Tests / methods

Substances

  • Immunoconjugates