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Increasing the Net Negative Charge by Replacement of DOTA Chelator with DOTAGA Improves the Biodistribution of Radiolabeled Second-Generation Synthetic Affibody Molecules

Westerlund, Kristina ; Honarvar, Hadis ; Norrström, Emily ; Strand, Joanna LU ; Mitran, Bogdan ; Orlova, Anna ; Eriksson Karlström, Amelie and Tolmachev, Vladimir (2016) In Molecular Pharmaceutics 13(5). p.1668-1678
Abstract

A promising strategy to enable patient stratification for targeted therapies is to monitor the target expression in a tumor by radionuclide molecular imaging. Affibody molecules (7 kDa) are nonimmunoglobulin scaffold proteins with a 25-fold smaller size than intact antibodies. They have shown an apparent potential as molecular imaging probes both in preclinical and clinical studies. Earlier, we found that hepatic uptake can be reduced by the incorporation of negatively charged purification tags at the N-terminus of Affibody molecules. We hypothesized that liver uptake might similarly be reduced by positioning the chelator at the N-terminus, where the chelator-radionuclide complex will provide negative charges. To test this hypothesis, a... (More)

A promising strategy to enable patient stratification for targeted therapies is to monitor the target expression in a tumor by radionuclide molecular imaging. Affibody molecules (7 kDa) are nonimmunoglobulin scaffold proteins with a 25-fold smaller size than intact antibodies. They have shown an apparent potential as molecular imaging probes both in preclinical and clinical studies. Earlier, we found that hepatic uptake can be reduced by the incorporation of negatively charged purification tags at the N-terminus of Affibody molecules. We hypothesized that liver uptake might similarly be reduced by positioning the chelator at the N-terminus, where the chelator-radionuclide complex will provide negative charges. To test this hypothesis, a second generation synthetic anti-HER2 ZHER2:2891 Affibody molecule was synthesized and labeled with (111)In and (68)Ga using DOTAGA and DOTA chelators. The chelators were manually coupled to the N-terminus of ZHER2:2891 forming an amide bond. Labeling DOTAGA-ZHER2:2891 and DOTA-ZHER2:2891 with (68)Ga and (111)In resulted in stable radioconjugates. The tumor-targeting and biodistribution properties of the (111)In- and (68)Ga-labeled conjugates were compared in SKOV-3 tumor-bearing nude mice at 2 h postinjection. The HER2-specific binding of the radioconjugates was verified both in vitro and in vivo. Using the DOTAGA chelator gave significantly lower radioactivity in liver and blood for both radionuclides. The (111)In-labeled conjugates showed more rapid blood clearance than the (68)Ga-labeled conjugates. The most pronounced influence of the chelators was found when they were labeled with (68)Ga. The DOTAGA chelator gave significantly higher tumor-to-blood (61 ± 6 vs 23 ± 5, p < 0.05) and tumor-to-liver (10.4 ± 0.6 vs 4.5 ± 0.5, p < 0.05) ratios than the DOTA chelator. This study demonstrated that chelators may be used to alter the uptake of Affibody molecules, and most likely other scaffold-based imaging probes, for improvement of imaging contrast.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Amides/chemistry, Animals, Cell Line, Tumor, Chelating Agents/chemistry, Female, Gallium Radioisotopes/chemistry, Humans, Indium Radioisotopes/chemistry, Isotope Labeling/methods, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Nude, Molecular Imaging/methods, Proteins/chemistry, Radioisotopes/chemistry, Radiopharmaceuticals/chemistry, Receptor, ErbB-2/metabolism, Tissue Distribution
in
Molecular Pharmaceutics
volume
13
issue
5
pages
1668 - 1678
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:84968547778
  • pmid:27010700
ISSN
1543-8392
DOI
10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.6b00089
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
f31988e9-021a-4321-89ea-e6457adffb35
date added to LUP
2022-11-15 10:52:50
date last changed
2024-04-03 21:42:31
@article{f31988e9-021a-4321-89ea-e6457adffb35,
  abstract     = {{<p>A promising strategy to enable patient stratification for targeted therapies is to monitor the target expression in a tumor by radionuclide molecular imaging. Affibody molecules (7 kDa) are nonimmunoglobulin scaffold proteins with a 25-fold smaller size than intact antibodies. They have shown an apparent potential as molecular imaging probes both in preclinical and clinical studies. Earlier, we found that hepatic uptake can be reduced by the incorporation of negatively charged purification tags at the N-terminus of Affibody molecules. We hypothesized that liver uptake might similarly be reduced by positioning the chelator at the N-terminus, where the chelator-radionuclide complex will provide negative charges. To test this hypothesis, a second generation synthetic anti-HER2 ZHER2:2891 Affibody molecule was synthesized and labeled with (111)In and (68)Ga using DOTAGA and DOTA chelators. The chelators were manually coupled to the N-terminus of ZHER2:2891 forming an amide bond. Labeling DOTAGA-ZHER2:2891 and DOTA-ZHER2:2891 with (68)Ga and (111)In resulted in stable radioconjugates. The tumor-targeting and biodistribution properties of the (111)In- and (68)Ga-labeled conjugates were compared in SKOV-3 tumor-bearing nude mice at 2 h postinjection. The HER2-specific binding of the radioconjugates was verified both in vitro and in vivo. Using the DOTAGA chelator gave significantly lower radioactivity in liver and blood for both radionuclides. The (111)In-labeled conjugates showed more rapid blood clearance than the (68)Ga-labeled conjugates. The most pronounced influence of the chelators was found when they were labeled with (68)Ga. The DOTAGA chelator gave significantly higher tumor-to-blood (61 ± 6 vs 23 ± 5, p &lt; 0.05) and tumor-to-liver (10.4 ± 0.6 vs 4.5 ± 0.5, p &lt; 0.05) ratios than the DOTA chelator. This study demonstrated that chelators may be used to alter the uptake of Affibody molecules, and most likely other scaffold-based imaging probes, for improvement of imaging contrast.</p>}},
  author       = {{Westerlund, Kristina and Honarvar, Hadis and Norrström, Emily and Strand, Joanna and Mitran, Bogdan and Orlova, Anna and Eriksson Karlström, Amelie and Tolmachev, Vladimir}},
  issn         = {{1543-8392}},
  keywords     = {{Amides/chemistry; Animals; Cell Line, Tumor; Chelating Agents/chemistry; Female; Gallium Radioisotopes/chemistry; Humans; Indium Radioisotopes/chemistry; Isotope Labeling/methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Nude; Molecular Imaging/methods; Proteins/chemistry; Radioisotopes/chemistry; Radiopharmaceuticals/chemistry; Receptor, ErbB-2/metabolism; Tissue Distribution}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{1668--1678}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{Molecular Pharmaceutics}},
  title        = {{Increasing the Net Negative Charge by Replacement of DOTA Chelator with DOTAGA Improves the Biodistribution of Radiolabeled Second-Generation Synthetic Affibody Molecules}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.6b00089}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.6b00089}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}