title: Targeting human cancer cells with VEGF receptor-2-directed liposomes.
abstract: Antibodies are among the most versatile tools used today to characterize and target molecules in cells and in biological tissues. The development of phage display libraries encoding a large repertoire of single chain antibodies, scFv, allows the rapid and efficient isolation of antibodies specific for almost any type of molecule. A great advantage of such recombinant antibodies is the possibility to functionalize them by introducing new amino acid sequences. This leads to new features that would be difficult to introduce into naturally occurring antibody molecules. This approach has been successfully applied to create molecules with new biological activities, e.g. by generating chimeric scFv antibodies carrying sequences derived from other biomolecules such as blood clotting factors or enzymes. Here, we describe a new antibody isolated from an M13 phage library that recognizes vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2, VEGFR-2. This antibody, scFvVR-2H9 was coupled to liposomes and used to specifically target VEGFR-2-expressing human cancer cells in culture.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biomolecular Research, Molecular Cell Biology, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rubio Demirovic
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marty
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Console
authors.forename: Steffen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Zeisberger
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruch
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jaussi
authors.forename: Reto A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Schwendener
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ballmer-Hofer
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D006801:Humans; D008081:Liposomes; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D019151:Peptide Library; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D008081:Liposomes; D019151:Peptide Library; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2