Leung Kam
National for Biotechnology Information, NLM, NIH, Bethesda, MD
Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a 53-amino acid growth factor (6.2 kDa) that is secreted by ectodermic cells, monocytes, kidneys, and duodenal glands (1). EGF stimulates growth of epidermal and epithelial cells. EGF and at least seven other growth factors and their transmembrane receptor kinases play important roles in cell proliferation, survival, adhesion, migration, and differentiation. The EGF receptor (EGFR) family consists of four transmembrane receptors, including EGFR (HER1/erbB-1), HER2 (erbB-2/neu), HER3 (erbB-3), and HER4 (erbB-4) (2). HER1, HER3, and HER4 comprise three major functional domains: an extracellular ligand-binding domain, a hydrophobic transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain. No ligand has been clearly identified for HER2; however, HER2 can be activated as a result of ligand binding to other HER receptors with the formation of receptor homodimers and/or heterodimers (3). HER1 as well as HER2 are overexpressed on many solid tumor cells such as breast, non–small-cell lung, head and neck, and colon cancers (4-6). The high levels of HER1 and HER2 expression on cancer cells are associated with a poor prognosis because high levels are related to increased proliferation (7-10). Trastuzumab, a humanized immunoglobulin G (IgG) monoclonal antibody (mAb) against the extracellular domain of recombinant HER2 (11), was labeled as In-trastuzumab (12-14). C225, an anti-EGFR (HER1), mouse-human chimeric, monoclonal IgG antibody, also known as erbitux or cetuximab, was labeled as Tc-EC-C225 (15, 16) for imaging EGFR expression on solid tumors using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). However, the pharmacokinetics of the intact radiolabeled mAb, with high liver uptake and slow blood elimination, are generally not ideal for imaging (17, 18). Smaller antibody fragments, such as scFv, Fab, or F(ab'), have better imaging pharmacokinetics because they are rapidly excreted by the kidneys. Nanobodies are the smallest intact antigen-binding fragments (15 kDa) isolated from heavy-chain camelid antibodies and exhibit efficient and specific tumor targeting (19-21). Nanobody 7D12 was labeled with Tc at its C-terminus hexahistidine tail for SPECT (22) and with Ga and Zr for positron emission tomography (PET) (23) imaging EGFR (HER1) expression in tumors in mice. Oliveira et al. (24) prepared IRDye 800CW-anti-EGFR nanobody 7D12 for near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging studies in tumor-bearing mice. IRDye 800CW is an indocyanine-type NIR fluorophore with peak absorption at 785 nm and peak excitation emission at 803 nm. Fluorescence imaging has an advantage in sensitivity in small animals where the signal is not degraded by significant absorption.
表皮生长因子（EGF）是一种由外胚层细胞、单核细胞、肾脏和十二指肠腺分泌的含53个氨基酸的生长因子（6.2 kDa）（1）。EGF刺激表皮细胞和上皮细胞的生长。EGF以及至少其他七种生长因子及其跨膜受体激酶在细胞增殖、存活、黏附、迁移和分化中发挥重要作用。表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）家族由四种跨膜受体组成，包括EGFR（HER1/erbB-1）、HER2（erbB-2/neu）、HER3（erbB-3）和HER4（erbB-4）（2）。HER1、HER3和HER4包含三个主要功能结构域：细胞外配体结合结构域、疏水跨膜结构域和细胞质酪氨酸激酶结构域。尚未明确鉴定出HER2的配体；然而，HER2可因配体与其他HER受体结合形成受体同二聚体和/或异二聚体而被激活（3）。HER1以及HER2在许多实体瘤细胞如乳腺癌、非小细胞肺癌、头颈癌和结肠癌中过表达（4 - 6）。癌细胞上HER1和HER2的高表达与预后不良相关，因为高水平与增殖增加有关（7 - 10）。曲妥珠单抗是一种针对重组HER2细胞外结构域的人源化免疫球蛋白G（IgG）单克隆抗体（mAb）（11），曾被标记为In - 曲妥珠单抗（12 - 14）。C225是一种抗EGFR（HER1）的鼠 - 人嵌合单克隆IgG抗体，也称为爱必妥或西妥昔单抗，被标记为Tc - EC - C225（15, 16），用于使用单光子发射计算机断层扫描（SPECT）对实体瘤上的EGFR表达进行成像。然而，完整放射性标记单克隆抗体的药代动力学通常不理想，肝脏摄取高且血液清除缓慢，不利于成像（17, 18）。较小的抗体片段，如单链抗体（scFv）、Fab或F(ab')，具有更好的成像药代动力学，因为它们可被肾脏快速排泄。纳米抗体是从骆驼科动物重链抗体中分离出的最小完整抗原结合片段（15 kDa），并表现出高效且特异的肿瘤靶向性（19 - 21）。纳米抗体7D12在其C末端六组氨酸尾部用锝标记用于SPECT（22），并用镓和锆标记用于正电子发射断层扫描（PET）（23），以对小鼠肿瘤中的EGFR（HER1）表达进行成像。奥利维拉等人（24）制备了IRDye 800CW - 抗EGFR纳米抗体7D12，用于荷瘤小鼠的近红外（NIR）荧光成像研究。IRDye 800CW是一种吲哚菁型近红外荧光团，峰值吸收在785 nm，峰值激发发射在803 nm。荧光成像在小动物中具有灵敏度优势，因为信号不会因显著吸收而衰减。
