|
|
|||||||||
Basic Science Investigation |
1 Department of Urology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; 2 Radiopharmacy, Department of Radiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; 3 Laboratory for Preclinical Imaging and Imaging Technology of the Werner Siemens-Foundation, Department of Radiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; 4 Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; and 5 Division of Immunology and Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California
Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Bernd J. Pichler, Laboratory for Preclinical Imaging and Imaging Technology of the Werner Siemens-Foundation, Department of Radiology, University of Tübingen, Röntgenweg, 13 72076 Tübingen, Germany. E-mail: bernd.pichler{at}med.uni-tuebingen.de
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
-counting. Results: Binding of the mAb 3/A12 on PSMA-expressing C4-2 cells was only minimally influenced by DOTA conjugation. The labeling efficiency using 64Cu and DOTA-3/A12 was 95.3% ± 0.3%. The specific activity after 64Cu labeling was between 327 and 567 MBq/mg. After tracer injection, static small-animal PET images of mice with PSMA-positive tumors revealed a tumor-to-background ratio of 3.3 ± 1.3 at 3 h, 7.8 ± 1.4 at 24 h, and 9.6 ± 2.7 at 48 h. In contrast, no significant tracer uptake occurred in the PSMA-negative DU 145 tumors. These results were confirmed by direct counting of tissues after the final imaging. Conclusion: Because of the high and specific uptake of 64Cu-labeled mAb 3/A12 in PSMA-positive tumors, this ligand represents an excellent candidate for prostate cancer imaging and potentially for radioimmunotherapy.
Key Words: prostate-specific membrane antigen radioimmunoimaging tumor localization PET
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The face of prostate cancer detection is changing. The widespread use of prostate-specific antigen screening has led to a dramatic downstaging of prostate cancer at diagnosis (1). The cancers detected today are smaller, of lower stage, and of lower grade than they were 20 y ago, but a wide range of aggressiveness remains.
Imaging has played a critical role in prostate cancer staging and in the detection of metastasis since the development of radiography of the axial skeleton. However, the precise indications for and specificity of imaging methods such as radionuclide bone scanning, CT, MRI or spectroscopy, ultrasonography, and combined PET/CT remain under debate (2). Clinical PET studies on prostate cancer have been performed with the non–tumor-specific glucose analog 18F-FDG (3) or the 11C-choline tracer for membrane synthesis (4).
As an alternative to PET tracers based on small molecules, radiolabeled antibodies that localize specifically to human malignancies are a new approach (5). Thus, antibodies or antibody fragments against antigens such as carcinoembryonic antigen (6–8), L1-CAM (9), or p185 (10) have been used for PET of various tumors, but not for prostate cancer.
Recent advances in expression profiling have identified several markers for prostate cancer. Of these, the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has proved to be an excellent target because this 100-kDa type II transmembrane glycoprotein is highly expressed by virtually all prostate cancers (11,12). In contrast to other highly restricted prostate-related antigens, such as the prostate-specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase, which are secretory proteins, PSMA is an integral membrane protein and is not released into the circulation (13). PSMA expression is highly prostate-specific and has been shown to be upregulated in poorly differentiated and advanced prostate cancer (14). The PSMA protein is expressed as a homodimer with a compact 3-dimensional structure on the cell surface of prostate epithelial cells and exhibits an extensive extracellular domain of 707 amino acid (15,16). Antibodies or antibody fragments targeting this specific extracellular structure can bind to and can be internalized in PSMA-expressing cells (17).
Recently, we reported the development of 3 IgG monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that react with cell-adherent PSMA and bind with high affinity to PSMA-expressing prostate cancer cells (18). The present study dealt with the in vivo behavior, biodistribution, and tumor uptake of one of these mAbs labeled with 64Cu-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-N,N',N'',N'''-tetraacetic acid (DOTA).
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The Hybridoma 3/A12 mAb
Generation of the hybridoma 3/A12 mAb (IgG1, anti-PSMA) was described previously (18). In brief, SP2-0 myeloma cells were fused with spleen cells from a BALB/c mouse, immunized intraperitoneally 5 times with 200 µL of mammalian protein extraction reagent lysate from LNCaP cells in complete Freund's adjuvant.
The mAb was purified using a 1-mL HiTrap protein G affinity column according to the manufacturer's instructions (Amersham Biosciences).
Flow Cytometry
Target cells (C4-2 and DU 145) were freshly harvested from tissue culture flasks, and a single-cell suspension was prepared in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) with 3% fetal calf serum and 0.1% NaN3. Approximately 105 cells were incubated with 50 µL of primary mAb 3/A12 at concentrations between 0.15 and 2,600 nM for 1 h on ice. After 3 rounds of washing with PBS, the cells were incubated with 25 µL of phycoerythrin-labeled goat antimouse IgG (Becton Dickinson) for 40 min on ice. The cells were then washed repeatedly and resuspended in 200 µL of PBS containing 1 µg of propidium iodide per milliliter, 3% fetal calf serum, and 0.1% NaN3. The relative fluorescence of stained cells was measured using a FACScan flow cytometer and the CellQuest software (Becton Dickinson). Mean fluorescence intensity values were considered after subtraction of the background staining with phycoerythrin-labeled goat antimouse IgG alone.
Preparation of DOTA-3/A12 mAb
An aliquot of 4 mg of mAb 3/A12 in 1 mL of PBS was dialyzed against 0.1 M Na2HPO4, pH 7.5, containing 1.2 g of Chelex 100 (Fluca) per liter, for 42 h at 4°C. Then, 80 µL of a freshly prepared 10 mg/mL solution of DOTA-mono (N-hydroxysuccinimide ester) (Macrocyclics) in 0.1 M Na2HPO4 were added. The reaction mixture was incubated at 4°C for 24 h with continuous end-over-end mixing, after which it was dialyzed against 10 mM Na2HPO4/150 mM NaCl, pH 7.5, containing 1.2 g of Chelex 100 per liter for 24 h at 4°C. The conjugate was then dialyzed against 0.25 M ammonium acetate, pH 7.0, containing 1.2 g of Chelex 100 per liter for 140 h at 4°C with 5 buffer changes.
Radiolabeling of DOTA-3/A12
64Cu was produced in Tübingen at the PETtrace cyclotron (12.5 MeV; GE Healthcare) by irradiation of 64Ni metal electroplated on a platinum/iridium plate (90/10) (20 mg, >98% enrichment; Isoflex) via the 64Ni(p,n)64Cu nuclear reaction and separated from 64Ni and other metallic impurities after dissolution using ion exchange chromatography (19). Radiolabeling was performed according to a modified procedure described in the literature (20). Briefly, 100 µL of a solution of the DOTA-conjugated antibody in a 1.5-mL Eppendorf cap (4.3 mg/mL in 0.25 M NH4OAc, pH 7.0) were incubated with approximately 100 µL of 64Cu (180–280 MBq) in 0.01 M HCl at 40°C for 40 min. pH was checked to be 5.5. Afterward, 20 µL of 10 mM diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid and 100 µL of 1% bovine serum albumin were added. Quality control was performed using thin-layer chromatography (silica gel 60, F254; Merck) and high-performance liquid chromatography (BioSil SEC 125-5 [Bio-Rad]; 300 x 7.8 mm; PBS; 1 mL/min; 220 nm).
SCID Mouse Xenograft Model
Six-week-old male severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were purchased from Charles River Laboratories. The animals were kept under sterile and standardized environmental conditions (20°C ± 1°C room temperature, 50% ± 10% relative humidity, 12-h light–dark rhythm) and received autoclaved food, water, and bedding. All experiments were performed according to the German Animal Protection Law with permission from the responsible local authorities. For tumor inoculation, 2 x 106 C4-2 cells or 2 x 106 DU 145 cells in 100 µL of PBS were mixed with 100 µL of Matrigel (Collaborative Biomedical Products) at 4°C and administered subcutaneously in the right flank of each animal. Growing tumors were palpated, and the diameters were measured by a caliper rule and recorded 3 times a week.
PET Studies and Biodistribution
For the PET experiment, tumor mice were imaged using an Inveon dedicated small-animal PET scanner (Siemens Preclinical Solutions), yielding a spatial resolution of about 1.3 mm in the reconstructed image. The awake animals were lightly restrained and injected with 20–30 µg of 64Cu-DOTA-3/A12 mAb via a lateral tail vein. A 10-min static PET scan was obtained 3, 24, and 48 h after tracer injection. During imaging, the animals were anesthetized with a mixture of 1.5% isoflurane and 100% oxygen. The animals were centered in the field of view of the PET scanner. Anesthesia was monitored by measuring respiratory frequency, and the body temperature was kept at 37°C by a heating pad underneath the animal. PET data were acquired in list mode, graphed in one 10-min time frame, and reconstructed using an iterative ordered-subset expectation maximization algorithm. Image files were analyzed using AsiPro software (Siemens Preclinical Solutions).
After the last PET scan, the animals were sacrificed by cervical dislocation under deep anesthesia and dissected. Tumors and organs were removed and measured together with an aliquot of injected solution in the
-counter (Wizard single-detector
-counter; Perkin Elmer) using an energy window of between 425 and 640 keV. Results are expressed as percentage injected dose (%ID) per gram of tissue.
Statistical Analysis
All quantitative data are reported as mean ± 1 SD. Statistical analysis was performed using a 2-tailed t test; data were considered as statistically significant for P values of 0.05 or less.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The binding properties of 3/A12 mAb and DOTA-conjugated 3/A12 were compared by treating C4-2 cells with increasing concentrations (between 0.15 and 2,600 nM) of the primary mAb (3/A12 and DOTA-3/A12) followed by incubation with a saturating amount of phycoerythrin-labeled goat antimouse IgG followed by cytofluorometric analysis. The concentration reaching a 50% saturation of PSMA sites was 10 nM for 3/A12 and 15 nM for DOTA-3/A12, indicating only a minimal reduction of the binding capacity after derivatization (Fig. 1). When Cu-DOTA-3/A12 (labeled with nonradioactive copper) was measured in a similar way, no alteration of the immunoreactivity was found.
|
Additionally, we incubated 64Cu-DOTA 3/A12 for 3, 24, and 48 h in PBS and 20% SCID mouse serum at 37°C and measured the purity (stability) by thin-layer chromatography. At these time points, the radiochemical purity decreased from 94% (without incubation) to 93% (3 h, PBS/serum), 89.6% (24 h, PBS), 92% (24 h, serum), 90% (48 h, PBS), and 63% (48 h, serum).
Blood Immunoreactivity of Unconjugated and Functionalized 3/A12 mAb
For measuring immunoreactivity and clearance in SCID mice, 3/A12 mAb, DOTA-3/A12, and DOTA-3/A12 labeled with nonradioactive copper were each injected into 3 mice at a single dose of 25 µg. Blood was collected at different time points between 1 and 32 d after mAb injection. Then, the immunoreactivity was determined by flow cytometry. As shown in Figure 2, the serum activity of 3/A12, DOTA-3/A12, and Cu-DOTA-3/A12 decreased slowly. From the curves, a serum half-life of about 18 d for 3/A12, DOTA-3/A12, and Cu-DOTA-3/A12 was estimated.
|
PET
The radiochemical purity after labeling DOTA-3/A12 with 64Cu was 95.3% ± 0.3%. The specific activity was between 327 and 567 MBq/mg, with a mean of 442 ± 120 MBq/mg in 3 independent labeling procedures.
Each animal (n = 8) received between 20 and 30 µg of radiolabeled mAb, corresponding to an activity of 7.6–11.5 MBq.
Although the blood activity of the mAb was rather high, static small-animal PET images of mice bearing PSMA-positive tumors revealed a tumor-to-muscle ratio of 3.3 ± 1.3 at 3 h, 7.8 ± 1.4 at 24 h, and 9.6 ± 2.7 at 48 h after tracer injection (Fig. 3, positive control). In sharp contrast, the PSMA-negative DU 145 tumors showed only faint tracer uptake at any measured time point (Fig. 3, negative control). The difference between DU 145 and C4-2 tumors was highly significant at 24 and 48 h after injection of the radiolabeled mAb (P < 0.001).
|
|
-counting of selected isolated organs from mice bearing PSMA-positive C4-2 tumors (n = 8) and from animals with DU 145 tumors (n = 7) 48 h after tracer application (Fig. 5). These data revealed a significantly higher uptake of 35.1 ± 8.0 %ID/g in C4-2 tumors, compared with 12.8 ± 2.7 %ID/g in DU 145 tumors (P < 0.001). The activity remaining in the blood was 16.2 ± 9.5 %ID/g in mice with C4-2 tumors and 17.9 ± 1.8 %ID/g in mice with DU 145 tumors. Figure 5 shows the mean tracer uptake 48 h after injection in the tumor and blood and in addition in muscle (1.3 ± 0.3 %ID/g), heart (5.1 ± 1.0 %ID/g), stomach (2.1 ± 0.4 %ID/g), kidney (5.5 ± 0.6 %ID/g), and colon (2.6 ± 0.4 %ID/g). Measured %ID differed by approximately a factor of 2 between the postmortem biodistribution data and in vivo PET data. This difference, a lower %ID/cm3 in PET data than in the postmortem biodistribution by
-counting, is caused mainly by non–attenuation-corrected animal PET data and partial-volume effects. However, the ratios in PET and
-counting between PSMA-positive and DU 145 tumors were comparable.
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
The tracer was based on the anti-PSMA mAb 3/A12. Radiolabeling with 64Cu through a DOTA moiety conjugated to the mAb was accomplished without loss of immunoreactivity. Small-animal PET imaging studies showed that the 64Cu-labeled mAb 3/A12 bound specifically to C4-2 tumors, whereas tracer uptake in PSMA-negative DU 145 tumors remained at the background level. This comparison with the PSMA-negative control tumor supports antigen binding as the major mechanism of localization. Sufficient tumor-to-background uptake ratios in PSMA-positive tumors were already reached 3 h after tracer injection. Target-to-background ratios and the resultant quality of the images improved when the imaging time was extended to 24 and 48 h after injection. The specificity of the radiolabeled mAb 3/A12 to PSMA was proven by the blocking experiments, in which a nearly full receptor blockade could be reached with 700 µg of nonradiolabeled mAb. The time of application of the unlabeled mAb was 3 h before tracer injection. This time was chosen according to our own unpublished internalization data. The
-counting results showed a high tracer concentration in the blood over 48 h. This result was expected for mAb in vivo imaging (21). However, this high blood concentration was compensated for by a specific binding of the radiolabeled mAb, leading to a tumor-to-background ratio that was sufficient for PET. The 12.7-h half-life of 64Cu allows for a mAb-labeling and animal-handling timing schedule that is convenient and will be acceptable, in terms of radiation safety, for potential future clinical applications. Such a schedule would be especially acceptable in view of the low levels at which 64Cu uptake remained in other organs, such as kidney, muscle, or liver.
Copper–DOTA complexes are not stable in vivo, and 64Cu may be transchelated to other proteins (22). Also, 64Cu-DOTA 3/A12 has been shown to be unstable on incubation with SCID mouse serum for 48 h in vitro, and this instability may also be expected in vivo. On the other hand, we have demonstrated that PSMA is rapidly internalized into PSMA-expressing cells after binding of the anti-PSMA mAb 3/A12 (18), and conjugates of 3/A12 are also internalized rapidly. This internalization of the radiometal-labeled antibody is suggested to result in metabolism and trapping of the radioactivity at the tumor site, maintaining the signal (21).
The use of PSMA as an in vivo target has been initially validated by immunoscintigraphy trials with the mAb 7E11/CYT-356 (capromab pendetide [ProstaScint]; Cytogen Corp.) (23–26). However, this mAb targets an intracellular portion of the PSMA molecule and therefore can target only necrotic or apoptotic cells (27). This fact is thought to be the basis of its ability to target soft-tissue sites but not bone metastases (28).
A major advantage has been the development of a series of mAbs that bind to the extracellular portion of PSMA (29). These antibodies have been shown to bind to viable prostate epithelial cells with high affinity (30). One of these, J591, has been extensively studied in preclinical models, in which it showed a high tumor-to-nontumor organ ratio in nude mice bearing LNCaP tumors (31,32). These studies were followed by several clinical trials using J591 labeled with different nuclides for radioimmunoscintigraphy and radioimmunotherapy (33). However, to our knowledge, no PET study with J591 or other anti-PSMA mAbs has been published.
We are aware that imaging with a mAb bears the problem of a prolonged biologic half-life of the intact antibody with a slow blood clearance. For further development toward a clinical application, smaller antibody fragments may have a better relationship between tumor uptake and blood clearance (21). Therefore, Fab and (Fab)2 antigen-binding fragments of the mAb 3/A12, as well as a recombinant antibody fragment and diabody, are currently under investigation.
| CONCLUSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Related articles in JNM:
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
A. Zaheer, S. Y. Cho, and M. G. Pomper New Agents and Techniques for Imaging Prostate Cancer J. Nucl. Med., September 1, 2009; 50(9): 1387 - 1390. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | RSS | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE TECHNOLOGY | THE JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE |