cancers Article Drug Conjugates Based on a Monovalent Affibody Targeting Vector Can Efficiently Eradicate HER2 Positive Human Tumors in an Experimental Mouse Model Tianqi Xu 1,† , Haozhong Ding 2,† , Anzhelika Vorobyeva 1,3 , Maryam Oroujeni 1, Anna Orlova 3,4 , Vladimir Tolmachev 1,3 and Torbjörn Gräslund 2,* 1 Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden;
[email protected] (T.X.);
[email protected] (A.V.);
[email protected] (M.O.);
[email protected] (V.T.) 2 Department of Protein Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Roslagstullsbacken 21, 114 17 Stockholm, Sweden;
[email protected] 3 Research Centrum for Oncotheranostics, Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia;
[email protected] 4 Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, 751 23 Uppsala, Sweden * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +46-(0)8-790-96-27 † Equal contribution. Simple Summary: Drug conjugates, consisting of a tumor targeting part coupled to a highly toxic molecule, are promising for treatment of many different types of cancer. However, for many patients it is not curative, and investigation of alternative or complimentary types of drug conjugates is motivated. Here, we have devised and studied a novel cancer cell-directed drug conjugate ZHER2:2891- ABD-E3-mcDM1. We found that it could induce efficient shrinkage and, in some cases, complete Citation: Xu, T.; Ding, H.; Vorobyeva, regression of human tumors implanted in mice, and thus holds promise to become a therapeutic A.; Oroujeni, M.; Orlova, A.; agent for clinical use in the future.