gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

Single-chain Fv immunoliposomes for drug delivery in cancer therapy

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Roland Kontermann - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart, Deutschland
  • Dafne Müller - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart
  • Patrick Baum - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart
  • Gerhard Trunk - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart
  • Ines Höfig - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart
  • Kirstin Zettlitz - Institut für Zellbiologie und Immunologie, Stuttgart

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocPE466

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk576.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Kontermann et al.
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Outline

Text

Liposomes are versatile carrier systems for the delivery of cytotoxic drugs in tumor therapy. Liposomes have the advantage to protect the encapsulated drug from degradation and elimination and to improve its pharmacokinetic properties. Active tumor targeting can be achieved by incorporating tumor-specific ligands such as peptides or antibodies into the liposome surface. We have developed immunoliposomes based on recombinant single-chain Fv fragments (scFv) genetically modified to allow for a site-directed coupling through a C-terminal cysteine residue. These scFv’ fragments can be expressed in bacteria in sufficient quantities. Coupling to liposomes is achieved by incorporating functionalized lipids (e.g. maleimide-PEG-PE) into the lipid bilayer. Using various scFv fragments directed against proteins expressed by proliferating endothelial cells (endoglin), tumor stroma fibroblasts (fibroblast activation protein) or tumor cells (e.g. CEA), we could demonstrate target cell specific binding and uptake of these immunoliposomes in vitro. Initial studies showed that these immunoliposomes are also able to selectively deliver cytotoxic drugs into target cells and to increase cytotoxicity. Thus, these immunoliposomes represent promising carrier system for efficient delivery of high payloads of chemotherapeutic drugs or other molecules to target cells.


References

1.
Kontermann RE. Immunoliposomes for cancer therapy. Curr Op Mol Ther. in press. 2006.