Uptake of a boronated epidermal growth factor-dextran conjugate in CHO xenografts with and without human EGF-receptor expression.

An epidermal growth factor (EGF)-dextran-boron conjugate for targeting against EGF receptor-rich tumours was investigated regarding uptake and distribution in vivo. EGF served as the tumour-seeking part and dextran was the carrier for the potentially toxic boron. Nude mice carrying subcutaneous tumours on the flanks were injected with conjugate either i.v. or intratumorally. The xenografts were from Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with the gene for the human EGF-receptor (CHO-EGFR), and these cells expressed the EGFR. Non-transfected cells without EGF-receptors (CHO) were used as controls. No accumulations in tumours could be observed following the i.v. injections but there were, in both tumour types, high accumulations in the liver. Following intratumoral injections the accumulations were higher in the CHO-EGFR tumours than in the CHO tumours. The tumour over blood and liver ratios were also higher for the CHO-EGFR tumours than for the CHO tumours. Thyroid accumulations after the intratumoral injections indicate different degradation patterns of the conjugate in CHO-EGFR animals than in CHO animals. In conclusion, after intratumoral injections the conjugate showed receptor-dependent binding to EGFR-rich tumours, and the tumour-to-blood and tumour-to-liver ratios were promising.