Novel antibody-drug conjugate with UV-controlled cleavage mechanism for cytotoxin release

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are being developed worldwide with the potential to revolutionize current cancer treatment strategies. However, off-target toxicity caused by the instability of linkers remains one of the main issues to be resolved. Developing a novel photocontrol-ADC with good stability and photocontrolled release seemed to be an attractive and practical solution. In this study, we designed, for the first time, a novel ultraviolet (UV) light-controlled ADC by carefully integrating the UV-cleavable o-nitro-benzyl structure into the linker. Our preliminary work indicated that the ADC exhibited good stability and photocontrollability while maintaining a targeting effect similar to that of the naked antibody. Upon irradiation with UV light, the ADC rapidly released free cytotoxins and exerted significant cytotoxicity toward drug-resistant tumor cells. Compared to those of the unirradiated cells, the EC50 values of ADCs increased by up to 50-fold. Furthermore, our research confirmed that the degradation products of unirradiated ADC, Cys-1a, were relatively less toxic, thus potentially reducing the off-target toxicity caused by nonspecific uptake of ADCs. The novel design strategy of UV light-controlled ADCs may provide new perspectives for future research on ADCs and promote the development of photocontrol systems.