Viral transduction of the HER2-extracellular domain expands trastuzumab-based photoimmunotherapy for HER2-negative breast cancer cells

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2015 Feb;149(3):597-605. doi: 10.1007/s10549-015-3265-y. Epub 2015 Jan 24.

Abstract

The prognosis of HER2-positive breast cancer has been improved by trastuzumab therapy, which features high specificity and limited side effects. However, trastuzumab-based therapy has shortcomings. Firstly, HER2-targeted therapy is only applicable to HER2-expressing tumors, which comprise only 20-25% of primary breast cancers. Secondly, many patients who initially respond to trastuzumab ultimately develop disease progression. To overcome these problems, we employed virus-mediated HER2 transduction and photoimmunotherapy (PIT) which involves trastuzumab conjugated with a photosensitizer, trastuzumab-IR700, and irradiation of near-infrared light. We hypothesized that the gene transduction technique together with PIT would expand the range of tumor entities suitable for trastuzumab-based therapy and improve its antitumor activity. The HER2-extracellular domain (ECD) was transduced by the adenoviral vector, Ad-HER2-ECD, and PIT with trastuzumab-IR700 was applied in the HER2-negative cancer cells. Ad-HER2-ECD can efficiently transduce HER2-ECD into HER2-negative human cancer cells. PIT with trastuzumab-IR700 induced direct cell membrane destruction of Ad-HER2-ECD-transduced HER2-negative cancer cells. Novel combination of viral transduction of a target antigen and an antibody-based PIT would expand and potentiate molecular-targeted therapy even for target-negative or attenuated cancer cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenoviridae / genetics
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized / administration & dosage
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Breast Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / drug effects
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / radiation effects
  • Genetic Vectors
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy*
  • Indoles / administration & dosage
  • Infrared Rays
  • MCF-7 Cells
  • Organosilicon Compounds / administration & dosage
  • Photosensitizing Agents / administration & dosage
  • Phototherapy*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary / genetics
  • Receptor, ErbB-2 / genetics*
  • Transduction, Genetic
  • Trastuzumab

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
  • IR700DX-mbc94
  • Indoles
  • Organosilicon Compounds
  • Photosensitizing Agents
  • ERBB2 protein, human
  • Receptor, ErbB-2
  • Trastuzumab