Immunoconjugates composed of the α-emitter
213Bi and the monoclonal antibody d9MAb specifically target HSC45-M2 gastric cancer cells expressing mutant d9-E-cadherin. These
conjugates efficiently killed tumor cells in a nude mouse peritoneal carcinomatosis model. To elucidate the molecular responses
of HSC45-M2 cells to α-emitter irradiation, whole genome gene expression profiling was performed. For that purpose HSC45-M2
cells were incubated with lethal doses of
213Bi-d9MAb. RNA was isolated at 6, 24 and 48 h after irradiation, transcribed into cDNA and hybridized to whole genome microarrays.
Results of microarray analysis were validated using RTQ-PCR showing correspondence of approximately 90%. Following incubation
with
213Bi-d9MAb, 682-1125 genes showed upregulation and 666-1278 genes showed downregulation at one time point, each. Eight genes
appeared upregulated and 12 genes downregulated throughout. Molecular functions and biological processes of differentially
expressed genes were categorized according to the PANTHER database. Following
213Bi-d9MAb irradiation also a time-dependent shift in terms of overrepresentation of biological processes was observed. Among
the genes showing continuous upregulation,
COL4A2,
NEDD9 and
C3 have not been associated with the cellular response to high LET radiation so far. The same holds true for
WWP2,
RFX3,
HIST4H4 and
JADE1 that showed continuous downregulation. According to PANTHER, three of the consistently upregulated (
ITM2C,
FLJ11000,
MSMB) and downregulated (
HCG9,
GAS2L3,
FLJ21439) genes, respectively, have not been associated with any biological process or molecular function so far. Thus, these findings
revealed interesting new targets for selective elimination of tumor cells and new insights regarding response of tumor cells
to α-emitter exposure.
Keywords Radioimmunotherapy - Alpha-emitter 213Bi - Gastric cancer - Gene expression profiling - Whole genome microarray
Christof Seidl and Matthias Port contributed equally to this work.