Evaluation of an (131)I-labeled HER2-specific single domain antibody fragment for the radiopharmaceutical therapy of HER2-expressing cancers

Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) is an attractive strategy for treatment of disseminated cancers including those overexpressing the HER2 receptor including breast, ovarian and gastroesophageal carcinomas. Single-domain antibody fragments (sdAbs) exemplified by the HER2-targeted VHH_1028 evaluated herein are attractive for RPT because they rapidly accumulate in tumor and clear faster from normal tissues than intact antibodies. In this study, VHH_1028 was labeled using the residualizing prosthetic agent N-succinimidyl 3-guanidinomethyl 5-[(131)I]iodobenzoate (iso-[(131)I]SGMIB) and its tissue distribution evaluated in the HER2-expressing SKOV-3 ovarian and BT474 breast carcinoma xenograft models. In head-to-head comparisons to [(131)I]SGMIB-2Rs15d, a HER2-targeted radiopharmaceutical currently under clinical investigation, iso-[(131)I]SGMIB-VHH_1028 exhibited significantly higher tumor uptake and significantly lower kidney accumulation. The results demonstrated 2.9 and 6.3 times more favorable tumor-to-kidney radiation dose ratios in the SKOV-3 and BT474 xenograft models, respectively. Iso-[(131)I]SGMIB-VHH_1028 was prepared using a solid-phase extraction method for purification of the prosthetic agent intermediate Boc(2)-iso-[(131)I]SGMIB that reproducibly scaled to therapeutic-level doses and obviated the need for its HPLC purification. Single-dose (SKOV-3) and multiple-dose (BT474) treatment regimens demonstrated that iso-[(131)I]SGMIB-VHH_1028 was well tolerated and provided significant tumor growth delay and survival prolongation. This study suggests that iso-[(131)I]SGMIB-VHH_1028 is a promising candidate for RPT of HER2-expressing cancers and further development is warranted.