In situ activation of STING pathway with polymeric SN38 for cancer chemoimmunotherapy

STING (stimulator of interferon genes) signaling pathway has attracted considerable attention in cancer immunotherapy due to its capacity to boost vigorous antitumor immunity. However, the shortage of effective STING agonists limits the promotion of STING pathway in cancer treatment. Herein, we present an approach for in situ activation of STING pathway with nanoparticles delivered DNA-targeting chemo agents, based on the understanding that cytosol DNA is a pre-requisite for STING pathway activation. Through in vitro screening among several DNA-targeting chemo agents, we identified 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecin (SN38) as the most potent drug for stimulating interferon (IFN)-β secretion and proved that this process is mediated by the passage of DNA-containing exosomes from treated tumor cells to bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and subsequent activation of the STING pathway. Furthermore, we designed a polymeric-SN38 conjugate that could self-assemble into nanoparticles (SN38-NPs) for in vivo application. The SN38-NPs formulation reduced toxicity of free SN38, effectively stimulated the activation of STING pathway in E0771 tumors, and resulted in a tumor suppression rate (TSR%) of 82.6%. Our results revealed a new mechanism of SN38 in cancer treatment and should inspire using more DNA-targeting agents, especially in nanoformulation, for activating STING pathway and cancer chemoimmunotherapy.