A Novel d-Peptide Identified by Mirror-Image Phage Display Blocks TIGIT/PVR for Cancer Immunotherapy

Abstract

The low response rate and adaptive resistance of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade demands the studies on novel therapeutic targets for cancer immunotherapy. We discovered that a novel immune checkpoint TIGIT expressed higher than PD-1 in many tumors especially anti-PD-1 resistant tumors. Here, mirror-image phage display bio-panning was performed using the d-enantiomer of TIGIT synthesized by hydrazide-based native chemical ligation. d-peptide ^D TBP-3 was identified, which could occupy the binding interface and effectively block the interaction of TIGIT with its ligand PVR. ^D TBP-3 showed proteolytic resistance, tumor tissue penetrating ability, and significant tumor suppressing effects in a CD8⁺ T cell dependent manner. More importantly, ^D TBP-3 could inhibit tumor growth and metastasis in anti-PD-1 resistant tumor model. This is the first d-peptide targeting TIGIT, which could serve as a potential candidate for cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: TIGIT; cancer immunotherapy; immune checkpoint; mirror-image phage display; peptide.