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Colon-targeted S100A8/A9-specific peptide systems ameliorate colitis and colitis-associated colorectal cancer in mouse models

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica volume 45, pages 581–593 (2024)Cite this article

Abstract

The link between chronic inflammation and cancer development is well acknowledged. Inflammatory bowel disease including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease frequently promotes colon cancer development. Thus, control of intestinal inflammation is a therapeutic strategy to prevent and manage colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CRC). Recently, gut mucosal damage-associated molecular patterns S100A8 and S100A9, acting via interactions with their pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), especially TLR4 and RAGE, have emerged as key players in the pathogenesis of colonic inflammation. We found elevated serum levels of S100A8 and S100A9 in both colitis and colitis-associated CRC mouse models along with significant increases in their binding with PRR, TLR4, and RAGE. In this study we developed a dual PRR-inhibiting peptide system (rCT-S100A8/A9) that consisted of TLR4- and RAGE-inhibiting motifs derived from S100A8 and S100A9, and conjugated with a CT peptide (TWYKIAFQRNRK) for colon-specific delivery. In human monocyte THP-1 and mouse BMDMs, S100A8/A9-derived peptide comprising TLR4- and RAGE-interacting motif (0.01, 0.1, 1 μM) dose-dependently inhibited the binding of S100 to TLR4 or RAGE, and effectively inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation. We demonstrated that rCT-S100A8/A9 had appropriate drug-like properties including in vitro stabilities and PK properties as well as pharmacological activities. In mouse models of DSS-induced acute and chronic colitis, injection of rCT-S100A8/A9 (50 μg·kg-1·d-1, i.p. for certain consecutive days) significantly increased the survival rates and alleviated the pathological injuries of the colon. In AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC) mouse model, injection of rCT-S100A8/A9 (50 μg·kg-1·d-1, i.p.) increased the body weight, decreased tumor burden in the distal colon, and significantly alleviated histological colonic damage. In mice bearing oxaliplatin-resistant CRC xenografts, injection of rCT-S100A8/A9 (20 μg/kg, i.p., every 3 days for 24–30 days) significantly inhibited the tumor growth with reduced EMT-associated markers in tumor tissues. Our results demonstrate that targeting the S100-PRR axis improves colonic inflammation and thus highlight this axis as a potential therapeutic target for colitis and CRC.

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Fig. 1: Interaction between S100A8 or A9 and TLR4 or RAGE is increased in inflammation-related colon disease in mice.
Fig. 2: Discovery and design of S100A8/A9 peptides that inhibit essential regions binding to TLR4 and RAGE.
Fig. 3: S100A8/A9 peptide inhibits the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome.
Fig. 4: The effects drug-like properties of rCT-S100A8/A9.
Fig. 5: rCT-S100A8/A9 has a therapeutic effect against DSS-induced acute and chronic colitis in mice.
Fig. 6: rCT-S100A8/A9 has a therapeutic effect against AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated colorectal cancer in mice.
Fig. 7: rCT-S100A8/A9 ameliorated oxaliplatin-resistant HCT116 xenograft tumor growth.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all members of the Infection Biology Lab for critical reading and discussion of the manuscript. This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (grant no. 2019R1I1A2A01064237 and 2021R1A4A5032463), by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health &Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI22C0884). EC was supported by the Health Fellowship Foundation.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Euni Cho, Seok-Jun Mun.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bionano Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04673, Republic of Korea

    Euni Cho & Seok-Jun Mun

  2. Center for Bionano Intelligence Education and Research, Ansan, 15588, Republic of Korea

    Euni Cho, Seok-Jun Mun, Hyo Keun Kim, Yu Seong Ham, Woo Jin Gil & Chul-Su Yang

  3. Department of Molecular and Life Science, Hanyang University, Ansan, 15588, Republic of Korea

    Hyo Keun Kim, Yu Seong Ham, Woo Jin Gil & Chul-Su Yang

  4. Department of Medicinal and Life Science, Hanyang University, Ansan, 15588, Republic of Korea

    Chul-Su Yang

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EC, SJM, HKK, YSH, and WJG performed molecular and animal experiments and also analyzed the data. CSY designed and conceptualized the research supervised the experimental work, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript

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Correspondence to Chul-Su Yang.

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Cho, E., Mun, SJ., Kim, H.K. et al. Colon-targeted S100A8/A9-specific peptide systems ameliorate colitis and colitis-associated colorectal cancer in mouse models. Acta Pharmacol Sin 45, 581–593 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41401-023-01188-2

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