Kaelan Nicholas Torres Samoranos

Mr. Kaelan Nicholas Torres Samoranos

Coastar Therapeutics Inc., San Diego, California, USA

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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28 August 2022 in Pharmaceutics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
KSKaelan Nicholas Torres Samoranos
Kaelan Nicholas Torres Samoranos
AKAlexandra L. Krisiewicz
Alexandra L. Krisiewicz
BKBianca Karpinecz
Bianca Karpinecz
PGPhilip A. Glover
Philip A. Glover
TGTrevor V. Gale
Trevor V. Gale
HLHan Liang Lim
Han Liang Lim
Oncolytic viruses have emerged as a promising modality in cancer treatment given their high synergy with highly efficient immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, their potency is limited by their rapid in vivo clearance. To overcome this, we coated oncolytic vaccinia viruses (oVV) with erythrocyte-derived membranes (EDMs), hypothesizing that they would not only remain in systemic circulation for longer as erythrocytes would when administered intravenously, but also respond to environmental pH cues due to their membrane surface sialic acid residues. For this, we developed a model based on DLVO theory to show that the acidic moieties on the surface of EDM confers it the ability to respond to pH-based stimuli. We corroborate our modeling results through in vitro cell culture models and show that EDM-coated oVV infects cancer cells faster under acidic conditions akin to the tumor microenvironment. When EDM-coated oVVs were intravenously injected into wild-type mice, they exhibited prolonged circulation at higher concentrations when compared to the unprocessed oVV. Furthermore, when EDM-coated oVV was directly injected into xenografted tumors, we observed that they were suppressed earlier than the tumors that received regular oVV, suggesting that the EDM coating does not hinder oVV infectivity. Overall, we found that EDM was able to serve as a multi-functional encapsulant that allowed the payload to remain in circulation at higher concentrations when administered intravenously while simultaneously exhibiting pH-responsive properties.