Axl and EGFR Dual-Specific Binding Affibody for Targeted Therapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a tumor of the head and neck, with a higher incidence in southern China and Southeast Asia. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the main treatments; however, metastasis and recurrence remain the main causes of treatment failure. Further, the majority of patients are d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Saidu Kamara, He Wen, Yanru Guo, Ying Liu, Lei Liu, Wangqi Du, Jun Chen, Shanli Zhu, Lifang Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-11-01
Series:Cells
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/13/22/1823
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Summary:Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a tumor of the head and neck, with a higher incidence in southern China and Southeast Asia. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the main treatments; however, metastasis and recurrence remain the main causes of treatment failure. Further, the majority of patients are diagnosed in the late stage due to lack of tumor-specific biomarker for early diagnosis. Therefore, an effective treatment and early detection can improve the outcome of patient with NPC. Axl and EGFR are co-expressed in NPC tissues and play key roles in tumor proliferation, migration, and invasion, which are often correlated with poor prognosis and therapy resistance. In this study, we generated a novel bispecific affibody (Z<sub>239-1907</sub>) for the dual targeting and inhibition of Axl and EGFR expression in NPC-positive cells both in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro experiments demonstrated that Z<sub>239-1907</sub> had more pronounced antitumor effects than either modality alone (Z<sub>AXL</sub>239 or Z<sub>EGFR</sub>1907) in NPC-positive cells. Further, mice bearing NPC-positive tumors showed significant inhibition in tumor growth after treatment with Z<sub>239-1907</sub> compared to Z<sub>AXL</sub>239 and Z<sub>EGFR</sub>1907. The in vivo tumor targeting ability and imaging also showed that Z<sub>239-1907</sub> specifically and selectively targeted NPC xenograft mice models and accumulate at tumor site as early as 30 min and disappeared within 24 h post-injection. Collectively, these results suggest that Z<sub>239-1907</sub> dual-target affibody is a promising therapeutic agent and a molecular imaging probe for early diagnosis in NPC.
ISSN:2073-4409