Effective therapeutic approach for head and neck cancer by an engineered minibody targeting the EGFR receptor

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 1;9(12):e113442. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113442. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Cetuximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody developed for targeting the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), has been intensively used to treat cancer patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer. Intact immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody like cetuximab, however, has some limitations such as high production cost and low penetration rate from vasculature into solid tumor mass due to its large size. In attempt to overcome these limitations, we engineered cetuximab to create single chain variable fragments (scFv-CH3; Minibody) that were expressed in bacterial system. Among three engineered minibodies, we found that MI061 minibody, which is composed of the variable heavy (VH) and light (VL) region joined by an 18-residue peptide linker, displays higher solubility and better extraction properties from bacterial lysate. In addition, we validated that purified MI061 significantly interferes ligand binding to EGFR and blocks EGFR's phosphorylation. By using a protein microarray composed of 16,368 unique human proteins covering around 2,400 plasma membrane associated proteins such as receptors and channels, we also demonstrated that MI061 only recognizes the EGFR but not other proteins as compared with cetuximab. These results indicated that engineered MI061 retains both binding specificity and affinity of cetuximab for EGFR. Although it had relatively short half-life in serum, it was shown to be highly significant anti-tumor effect by inhibiting ERK pathway in A431 xenograft model. Taken together, our present study provides compelling evidence that engineered minibody is more effective and promising agent for in vivo targeting of solid tumors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized / genetics*
  • Antibody Specificity
  • Base Sequence
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cetuximab
  • ErbB Receptors / immunology*
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / immunology
  • Head and Neck Neoplasms / pathology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Molecular Targeted Therapy*
  • Protein Engineering*
  • Signal Transduction / immunology
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / genetics*
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / immunology
  • Single-Chain Antibodies / therapeutic use*
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • Single-Chain Antibodies
  • ErbB Receptors
  • Cetuximab

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (No. 2011-0030043 & 2012-R1A1A1013558). This work was also supported in part by a grant from the National R&D program for Cancer Control, Ministry for Health and Welfare, Korea (131280). Sinil Pharmaceutical Company provided support in the form of salaries for authors YPK, SHL, WC, and JL. YL also received salary from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.