TY - JOUR
T1 - Aptamer Targets Triple-Negative Breast Cancer through Specific Binding to Surface CD49c
AU - Wan, Quanyuan
AU - Zeng, Zihua
AU - Qi, Jianjun
AU - Zhao, Yingxin
AU - Liu, Xiaohui
AU - Chen, Zhenghu
AU - Zhou, Haijun
AU - Zu, Youli
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Although targeted cancer therapy can induce higher therapeutic efficacy and cause fewer side effects in patients, the lack of targetable biomarkers on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells limits the development of targeted therapies by antibody technology. Therefore, we investigated an alternative approach to target TNBC by using the PDGC21T aptamer, which selectively binds to poorly differentiated carcinoma cells and tumor tissues, although the cellular target is still unknown. We found that synthetic aptamer probes specifically bound cultured TNBC cells in vitro and selectively targeted TNBC xenografts in vivo. Subsequently, to identify the target molecule on TNBC cells, we performed aptamer-mediated immunoprecipitation in lysed cell membranes followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Sequencing analysis revealed a highly conserved peptide sequence consistent with the cell surface protein CD49c (integrin α3). For target validation, we stained cultured TNBC and non-TNBC cells with an aptamer probe or a CD49c antibody and found similar cell staining patterns. Finally, competition cell-binding assays using both aptamer and anti-CD49c antibody revealed that CD49c is the biomarker targeted by the PDGC21T aptamer on TNBC cells. Our findings provide a molecular foundation for the development of targeted TNBC therapy using the PDGC21T aptamer as a targeting ligand.
AB - Although targeted cancer therapy can induce higher therapeutic efficacy and cause fewer side effects in patients, the lack of targetable biomarkers on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells limits the development of targeted therapies by antibody technology. Therefore, we investigated an alternative approach to target TNBC by using the PDGC21T aptamer, which selectively binds to poorly differentiated carcinoma cells and tumor tissues, although the cellular target is still unknown. We found that synthetic aptamer probes specifically bound cultured TNBC cells in vitro and selectively targeted TNBC xenografts in vivo. Subsequently, to identify the target molecule on TNBC cells, we performed aptamer-mediated immunoprecipitation in lysed cell membranes followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Sequencing analysis revealed a highly conserved peptide sequence consistent with the cell surface protein CD49c (integrin α3). For target validation, we stained cultured TNBC and non-TNBC cells with an aptamer probe or a CD49c antibody and found similar cell staining patterns. Finally, competition cell-binding assays using both aptamer and anti-CD49c antibody revealed that CD49c is the biomarker targeted by the PDGC21T aptamer on TNBC cells. Our findings provide a molecular foundation for the development of targeted TNBC therapy using the PDGC21T aptamer as a targeting ligand.
KW - Aptamer ligand
KW - Biomarker identification
KW - Integrin α3/CD49c
KW - Targeted cancer therapy
KW - Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)
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U2 - 10.3390/cancers14061570
DO - 10.3390/cancers14061570
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126546623
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 14
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 6
M1 - 1570
ER -