Radioimmunoscintigraphy of intracranial glioma xenograft with a technetium-99m-labeled mouse monoclonal antibody specifically recognizing type III mutant epidermal growth factor receptor

The type III mutant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is expressed on the cell surface of a subset of glioma, but not of normal tissues. In this study, we investigated the in vivo kinetics of 3C10 mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb), specifically recognizing the type III mutant EGFR (EGFRvIII), using athymic nude mice bearing the intracranial glioma xenograft overexpressing the EGFRvIII. Human glioma cell line, U87MG, expressing the wild type EGFR and the transfectant, named U87MG·ΔEGFR, expressing the EGFRvIII, were transplanted subcutaneously or intracranially to nude mice. 3C10 mAb labeled with a technetium-99m (^99mTc) was intravenously injected into these nude mice and then the mice were sacrificed at 24 h later, and the ^99mTc-uptake by xenografts and major normal organs was measured to determine the biodistribution of mAb. Furthermore, at 3, 6 and 24 h after injection of ^99mTc-labeled 3C10 mAb, whole-body scintigraphy was obtained with a gamma camera to localize the tumor site. 3C10 mAb significantly accumulated to U87MG·ΔEGFR xenografts transplanted subcutaneously or intracranially in nude mice, showing high tumor-to-blood ratio of 10.30 and 4.01, respectively. In contrast, uptake of control antibody in the intracranial tumor was as low as 0.43. In scintigrams, intracranially transplanted U87MG·ΔEGFR xenografts were detectable at 3 h after injection of ^99mTc-labeled 3C10 mAb. These results suggest that intravenously injected 3C10 mAb specifically accumulated to the subcutaneous or intracranial glioma xenograft expressing the EGFRvIII and 3C10 mAb is a potential diagnostic and therapeutic agent for patients with gliomas expressing the EGFRvIII.