title: Quantification of HER expression and dimerization in patients' tumor samples using time-resolved Förster resonance energy transfer.
abstract: Following the development of targeted therapies against EGFR and HER2, two members of the human epidermal receptor (HER) family of receptor tyrosine kinases, much interest has been focused on their expression in tumors. However, knowing the expression levels of individual receptors may not be sufficient to predict drug response. Here, we describe the development of antibody-based time-resolved Förster resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) assays for the comprehensive analysis not only of EGFR and HER2 expression in tumor cryosections, but also of their activation through quantification of HER homo- or heterodimers. First, EGFR and HER2 expression levels were quantified in 18 breast tumors and the results were compared with those obtained by using reference methods. The EGFR number per cell determined by TR-FRET was significantly correlated with EGFR mRNA copy number (P<0.0001). Moreover, our method detected HER2 overexpression with 100% specificity and sensibility, as confirmed by the standard IHC, FISH and qPCR analyses. EGFR and HER2 dimerization was then assessed, using as controls xenograft tumors from cell lines with known dimer expression profiles. Our results show that quantification of HER dimerization provides information about receptor activation that cannot be obtained by quantification of single receptors. Quantifying HER expression and dimerization by TR-FRET assays might help identifying novel clinical markers for optimizing patients' treatment in oncology.
authors: Translational Research Unit, CRLC Val d'Aurelle Paul Lamarque, Montpellier, France.
authors: Alexandre
authors: A
authors: Ho-Pun-Cheung
authors: Hervé
authors: H
authors: Bazin
authors: Nadège
authors: N
authors: Gaborit
authors: Christel
authors: C
authors: Larbouret
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Garnero
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Assenat
authors: Florence
authors: F
authors: Castan
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Bascoul-Mollevi
authors: Jeanne
authors: J
authors: Ramos
authors: Marc
authors: M
authors: Ychou
authors: André
authors: A
authors: Pèlegrin
authors: Gérard
authors: G
authors: Mathis
authors: Evelyne
authors: E
authors: Lopez-Crapez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D051379:Mice; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D066246:ErbB Receptors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases