Radioimmunoscintigraphy of human met-expressing tumor xenografts using met3, a new monoclonal antibody.
OBJECTIVE
Inappropriate expression of the receptor tyrosine kinase Met and its ligand is associated with an aggressive phenotype and poor clinical prognosis for a wide variety of solid human tumors. We are developing imaging and therapeutic agents that target this receptor-ligand complex. In this study, we evaluated the ability of radioiodinated anti-Met monoclonal antibodies from a single hybridoma clone to image human Met-expressing tumor xenografts.


METHODS
Xenografts of four different tissue origins were raised s.c. in host athymic nude mice. Animals received i.v. injections of I-125-Met3, posterior total body gamma camera images were acquired for several days after injection, and quantitative region-of-interest activity analysis was performed.


RESULTS
The autocrine Met-expressing tumors S-114 and SK-LMS-1/HGF and the paracrine Met-expressing human prostate carcinoma PC-3 were satisfactorily imaged with I-125-Met3. By region-of-interest analysis, mean initial tumor-associated activities in S-114, SK-LMS-1/HGF, and PC-3 were 18.6 +/- 2.1, 7.2 +/- 2.2, and 5.4 +/- 2.6% estimated injected activity, and the mean ratios of tumor:total body activity at 3 days after injection were 0.32 +/- 0.13, 0.15 +/- 0.06, and 0.10 +/- 0.04, respectively. Human melanoma xenografts, however, accounted for < or =3% of injected or total body activity. We observed a direct rank order correlation between relative levels of Met3-derived radioactivity in xenografts and relative quantities of Met expressed by the respective cultured tumor cell lines.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that I-125-Met3 is effective for imaging human Met-expressing xenografts of different tissue origins, and we infer that I-125-Met3 distinguishes human tumor xenografts according to their levels of Met expression.
D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D006825:Hybridomas; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008024:Ligands; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D010641:Phenotype; D011485:Protein Binding; D019859:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met / Q000737:chemistry; D016719:Radioimmunodetection / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D008024:Ligands; D019859:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met