Biological evaluation of (177)Lu-labeled DOTA-Ala(SO3H)-Aminooctanoyl-Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-N methyl Gly-His-Statine-Leu-NH2 for gastrin-releasing peptide receptor-positive prostate tumor targeting

Bombesin binds with selectivity and high affinity to a Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), which is highly overexpressed in prostate cancer cells. The present study describes the in vitro and in vivo biological characteristics of DOTA-Ala(SO3H)-Aminooctanoyl-Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-N methyl Gly-His-Statine-Leu-NH2 (DOTA-sBBNA), an antagonist analogue of bombesin peptide for the targeting of GRPR. DOTA-sBBNA was synthesized and labeled with (177)Lu as previously published. A saturation assay on PC-3 human prostate cancer cells revealed that the Kd value of the radiolabeled peptide was 1.88 nM with a maximum binding capacity (Bmax) of 289.3 fmol/10(6) cells. The radio-peptide slowly internalized, and 24.4±0.5% of the total binding was internalized in 4hr. Biodistribution studies were conducted in healthy and PC-3 xenografted balb/c mice, which showed high uptake and retention of tumor-associated radioactivity in PC-3 xenografted mice. The tumor-to-blood ratio was 126.02±9.36 at 1.5hr p.i., and was increased to 216.33±61.58 at 24hr p.i., which means that the radiolabeled peptide was highly accumulated in a tumor and rapidly cleared from the blood pool. The GRPR is also over-expressed in Korean prostate cancer patients. These results suggest that this (177)Lu-labeled peptide has promising characteristics for application in nuclear medicine, namely for the diagnosis and treatment of GRPR over-expressing prostate tumors.