In principle,
protein-based biotherapeutics offers a way to control biochemical processes in living cells under non-
steady state conditions and with fewer off-target effects than conventional
small molecule therapeutics. However, systemic
protein delivery
in vivo has been proven difficult due to poor
tissue penetration and rapid clearance.
Protein transduction exploits the ability of some
cell-penetrating
peptide (CPP) sequences to enhance the uptake of proteins and other macromolecules by mammalian cells. Previously developed hydrophobic CPPs, named membrane translocating sequence (MTS), membrane translocating motif (MTM) and
macromolecule transduction domain (MTD), are able to deliver biologically active proteins into a variety of cells and tissues. Various cargo proteins fused to these CPPs have been used to test the functional and / or therapeutic
efficacy of
protein transduction. The recombinant proteins consisting of
suppressor of
cytokine signaling 3 (CP-SOCS3) protein fused to the
fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 4-derived MTM were developed to inhibit
inflammation and
apoptosis. However, CP-SOCS3 fusion proteins expressed in
bacteria cells were hard to be purified in soluble form. To address these critical limitations, CPP sequences called advanced MTDs (aMTDs) have been developed in this art. This is accomplished by (i) analyzing previous developed hydrophobic CPP sequences to identify specific
critical factors (CFs) that affect
intracellular delivery potential and (ii) constructing artificial aMTD sequences satisfied for each critical factor. In addition, solubilization domains (SDs) have been incorporated into the aMTD-fused SOCS3 recombinant proteins to enhance
solubility with corresponding increases in protein yield and
cell- / tissue-permeability. These recombinant SOCS3 proteins fused to aMTD / SD having much higher
solubility / yield and
cell- / tissue-permeability have been named as improved cell-permeable SOCS3 (iCP-SOCS3) proteins. Previously developed CP-SOCS3 proteins fused to MTM were only tested or used as anti-inflammatory agents to treat
acute liver injury. In the present art, iCP-SOCS3 proteins have been tested for use as anti-
cancer agents in the treatment of various cancers likes gastric, colorectal and
breast cancer, and
glioblastoma. Since SOCS3 is frequently deleted in and loss of SOCS3 in tumors promotes resistance to
apoptosis and proliferation, we reasoned that iCP-SOCS3 could be used as a protein-based
intracellular replacement therapy for the treatment of various cancers. The results demonstrated in this art support the reasoning: treatment of
cancer cells with iCP-SOCS3 results in reduced
cancer cell viability, enhanced
apoptosis of
solid tumors including gastric, colorectal and
breast cancer, and
glioblastoma and loss of
cell migration / invasion potential. Furthermore, iCP-SOCS3 inhibits the growth of gastric and
colorectal tumors in a subcutaneous xenografts model. In the present invention with iCP-SOCS3, where SOCS3 is fused to an empirically determined combination of newly developed aMTD and customized SD,
macromolecule intracellular transduction technology (MITT) enabled by the advanced MTDs may provide
novel protein therapy against various tumors such as gastric cancer,
colorectal cancer,
glioblastoma, and
breast cancer.