Quantitating drug-target engagement in single cells in vitro and in vivo

JM Dubach, E Kim, K Yang, M Cuccarese… - Nature chemical …, 2017 - nature.com
JM Dubach, E Kim, K Yang, M Cuccarese, RJ Giedt, LG Meimetis, C Vinegoni, R Weissleder
Nature chemical biology, 2017nature.com
Quantitation of drug target engagement in single cells has proven to be difficult, often
leaving unanswered questions in the drug development process. We found that intracellular
target engagement of unlabeled new therapeutics can be quantitated using polarized
microscopy combined with competitive binding of matched fluorescent companion imaging
probes. We quantitated the dynamics of target engagement of covalent BTK inhibitors, as
well as reversible PARP inhibitors, in populations of single cells using a single companion …
Abstract
Quantitation of drug target engagement in single cells has proven to be difficult, often leaving unanswered questions in the drug development process. We found that intracellular target engagement of unlabeled new therapeutics can be quantitated using polarized microscopy combined with competitive binding of matched fluorescent companion imaging probes. We quantitated the dynamics of target engagement of covalent BTK inhibitors, as well as reversible PARP inhibitors, in populations of single cells using a single companion imaging probe for each target. We then determined average in vivo tumor concentrations and found marked population heterogeneity following systemic delivery, revealing single cells with low target occupancy at high average target engagement in vivo.
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