Purpose
Currently, the most commonly used chelator for labelling antibodies with
89
Zr for immunoPET is desferrioxamine B (DFO). However, preclinical studies have shown that the limited in vivo stability of the
89
Zr-DFO complex results in release of
89
Zr, which accumulates in mineral bone. Here we report a novel chelator DFOcyclo*, a preorganized extended DFO derivative that enables octacoordination of the
89
Zr radiometal. The aim was to compare the in vitro and in vivo stability of [
89
Zr]Zr-DFOcyclo*, [
89
Zr]Zr-DFO* and [
89
Zr]Zr-DFO.
Methods
The stability of
89
Zr-labelled chelators alone and after conjugation to trastuzumab was evaluated in human plasma and PBS, and in the presence of excess EDTA or DFO. The immunoreactive fraction, IC
50
, and internalization rate of the conjugates were evaluated using HER2-expressing SKOV-3 cells. The in vivo distribution was investigated in mice with subcutaneous HER2
+
SKOV-3 or HER2
−
MDA-MB-231 xenografts by PET/CT imaging and quantitative ex vivo tissue analyses 7 days after injection.
Results
89
Zr-labelled DFO, DFO* and DFOcyclo* were stable in human plasma for up to 7 days. In competition with EDTA, DFO* and DFOcyclo* showed higher stability than DFO. In competition with excess DFO, DFOcyclo*-trastuzumab was significantly more stable than the corresponding DFO and DFO* conjugates (
p
< 0.001). Cell binding and internalization were similar for the three conjugates. In in vivo studies, HER2
+
SKOV-3 tumour-bearing mice showed significantly lower bone uptake (
p
< 0.001) 168 h after injection with [
89
Zr]Zr-DFOcyclo*-trastuzumab (femur 1.5 ± 0.3%ID/g, knee 2.1 ± 0.4%ID/g) or [
89
Zr]Zr-DFO*-trastuzumab (femur 2.0 ± 0.3%ID/g, knee 2.68 ± 0.4%ID/g) than after injection with [
89
Zr]Zr-DFO-trastuzumab (femur 4.5 ± 0.6%ID/g, knee 7.8 ± 0.6%ID/g). Blood levels, tumour uptake and uptake in other organs were not significantly different at 168 h after injection. HER2
−
MDA-MB-231 tumour-bearing mice showed significantly lower tumour uptake (
p
< 0.001) after injection with [
89
Zr]Zr-DFOcyclo*-trastuzumab (16.2 ± 10.1%ID/g) and [
89
Zr]Zr-DFO-trastuzumab (19.6 ± 3.2%ID/g) than HER2
+
SKOV-3 tumour-bearing mice (72.1 ± 14.6%ID/g and 93.1 ± 20.9%ID/g, respectively), while bone uptake was similar.
Conclusion
89
Zr-labelled DFOcyclo* and DFOcyclo*-trastuzumab...