Evaluation of integrin ?v?6 cystine knot PET tracers to detect cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kimura RH
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6791878 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Evaluation of integrin αvβ<sub>6</sub> cystine knot PET tracers to detect cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Kimura Richard H RH Wang Ling L Shen Bin B Huo Li L Tummers Willemieke W Filipp Fabian V FV Guo Haiwei Henry HH Haywood Thomas T Abou-Elkacem Lotfi L Baratto Lucia L Habte Frezghi F Devulapally Rammohan R Witney Timothy H TH Cheng Yan Y Tikole Suhas S Chakraborti Subhendu S Nix Jay J Bonagura Christopher A CA Hatami Negin N Mooney Joshua J JJ Desai Tushar T Turner Scott S Gaster Richard S RS Otte Andrea A Visser Brendan C BC Poultsides George A GA Norton Jeffrey J Park Walter W Stolowitz Mark M Lau Kenneth K Yang Eric E Natarajan Arutselvan A Ilovich Ohad O Srinivas Shyam S Srinivasan Ananth A Paulmurugan Ramasamy R Willmann Juergen J Chin Frederick T FT Cheng Zhen Z Iagaru Andrei A Li Fang F Gambhir Sanjiv S SS
Nature communications 20191014 1
Advances in precision molecular imaging promise to transform our ability to detect, diagnose and treat disease. Here, we describe the engineering and validation of a new cystine knot peptide (knottin) that selectively recognizes human integrin αvβ<sub>6</sub> with single-digit nanomolar affinity. We solve its 3D structure by NMR and x-ray crystallography and validate leads with 3 different radiolabels in pre-clinical models of cancer. We evaluate the lead tracer's safety, biodistribution and pha ...[more]
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Project description:Integrin ?v?6 is a cell surface receptor minimally expressed by healthy tissue but elevated in lung, colon, skin, ovarian, cervical, and pancreatic cancers. A molecular PET agent for integrin ?v?6 could provide significant clinical utility by facilitating both cancer staging and treatment monitoring to more rapidly identify an effective therapeutic approach.Here, we evaluated 2 cystine knot peptides, R01 and S02, previously engineered with a 3-6 nM affinity for integrin ?v?6, for (18)F radiolabeling and PET imaging of BxPC3 pancreatic adenocarcinoma xenografts in mice. Cystine knot peptides were labeled with N-succinimidyl-4-(18)F-fluorobenzoate and evaluated for binding affinity and serum stability. Peptides conjugated with (18)F-fluorobenzoate (2-3 MBq) were injected via the tail vein into nude mice xenografted with BxPC3 (integrin ?v?6-positive) or 293 (integrin ?v?6-negative) tumors. Small-animal PET scans were acquired at 0.5, 1, and 2 h after injection. Ex vivo ?-counting of dissected tissues was performed at 0.5 and 2 h.(18)F-fluorobenzoate peptides were produced in 93% ((18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01) and 99% ((18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02) purity. (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02 had affinities of 1.1 ± 0.2 and 0.7 ± 0.4 nM, respectively, and were 87% and 94%, respectively, stable in human serum at 37°C for 2 h. (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02 exhibited 2.3 ± 0.6 and 1.3 ± 0.4 percentage injected dose per gram (%ID/g), respectively, in BxPC3 xenografted tumors at 0.5 h (n = 4-5). Target specificity was confirmed by low tumor uptake in integrin ?v?6-negative 293 tumors (1.4 ± 0.6 and 0.5 ± 0.2 %ID/g, respectively, for (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02; both P < 0.05; n = 3-4) and low muscle uptake (3.1 ± 1.0 and 2.7 ± 0.4 tumor to muscle for (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02, respectively). Small-animal PET data were corroborated by ex vivo ?-counting of dissected tissues, which demonstrated low uptake in nontarget tissues with only modest kidney uptake (9.2 ± 3.3 and 1.9 ± 1.2 %ID/g, respectively, at 2 h for (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02; n = 8). Uptake in healthy pancreas was low (0.3% ± 0.1% for (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01 and 0.03% ± 0.01% for (18)F-fluorobenzoate-S02; n = 8).These cystine knot peptide tracers, in particular (18)F-fluorobenzoate-R01, show translational promise for molecular imaging of integrin ?v?6 overexpression in pancreatic and other cancers.
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Project description:Recently, a truncated form of the agouti-related protein (AgRP), a 4-kDa cystine-knot peptide of human origin, was used as a scaffold to engineer mutants that bound to alpha(v)beta(3) integrin with high affinity and specificity. In this study, we evaluated the potential of engineered integrin-binding AgRP peptides for use as cancer imaging agents in living subjects.Engineered AgRP peptides were prepared by solid-phase peptide synthesis and were folded in vitro and purified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Competition assays were used to measure the relative binding affinities of engineered AgRP peptides for integrin receptors expressed on the surface of U87MG glioblastoma cells. The highest-affinity mutant, AgRP clone 7C, was site-specifically conjugated with 1,4,7,10-tetra-azacyclododecane-N,N',N''N'''-tetraacetic acid (DOTA). The resulting bioconjugate, DOTA-AgRP-7C, was radiolabeled with (64)Cu for biodistribution analysis and small-animal PET studies in mice bearing U87MG tumor xenografts. In addition to serum stability, the in vivo metabolic stability of (64)Cu-DOTA-AgRP-7C was assessed after injection and probe recovery from mouse kidney, liver, tumor, and urine.AgRP-7C and DOTA-AgRP-7C bound with high affinity to integrin receptors expressed on U87MG cells (half maximal inhibitory concentration values, 20 +/- 4 and 14 +/- 2 nM, respectively). DOTA-AgRP-7C was labeled with (64)Cu with high radiochemical purity (>99%). In biodistribution and small-animal PET studies, (64)Cu-DOTA-AgRP-7C displayed rapid blood clearance, good tumor uptake and retention (2.70 +/- 0.93 percentage injected dose per gram [%ID/g] and 2.37 +/- 1.04 %ID/g at 2 and 24 h, respectively), and high tumor-to-background tissue ratios. The integrin-binding specificity of (64)Cu-DOTA-AgRP-7C was confirmed in vitro and in vivo by showing that a large molar excess of the unlabeled peptidomimetic c(RGDyK) could block probe binding and tumor uptake. Serum stability and in vivo metabolite assays demonstrated that engineered AgRP peptides are sufficiently stable for in vivo molecular imaging applications.A radiolabeled version of the engineered AgRP peptide 7C showed promise as a PET agent for tumors that express the alpha(v)beta(3) integrin. Collectively, these results validate AgRP-based cystine-knot peptides for use in vivo as molecular imaging agents and provide support for the general use of AgRP as a scaffold to develop targeting peptides, and hence diagnostics, against other tumor receptors.
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