Novel delivery of Chlorin e6 using anti-EGFR antibody tagged virosomes for fluorescence diagnosis of oral cancer in a hamster cheek pouch model.

PURPOSE:Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is observed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and is associated with increased proliferation, metastasis and therapeutic resistance. We aim to develop a novel drug delivery system comprised of a photosensitizer Chlorin e6 (Ce6) that is encapsulated in a viral envelope and tagged with anti-EGFR antibody to target OSCC. METHODS:Ce6 was encapsulated in both virosomes (Ce6-Vir) and virosomes tagged with anti-EGFR antibody (Ce6-Vir-EGFR'). In vitro studies were conducted to assess the cellular uptake and bioavailability of the photosensitizer in OSCC cells. Ce6 alone or in constructs was then administered in a hamster cheek pouch model and fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy was performed. RESULTS:In vitro results showed that the uptake of Ce6-Vir-EGFR' was lower than that for Ce6-Vir and Ce6 possibly due to its large size. Nevertheless, in vivo results showed significant tumor specificity of Ce6-Vir-EGFR' compared to Ce6. The tumor to normal mucosa ratio showed that Ce6-Vir-EGFR' can successfully target OSCC lesions and therefore shows potential for use in fluorescence diagnosis of OSCC. CONCLUSIONS:Both the virosome-Ce6 constructs were internalized by OSCC cells and successfully used for fluorescence imaging. Tagging with anti-EGFR antibody further improved the targeting ability toward OSCC.