Targeting of membrane type1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) using superparamagnetic nanoparticles in human liver cancer cells

Magnetic nanoparticles in colloid form are attractive materials that have been widely exploited in medicine for diagnostic imaging and therapeutic applications. Iron oxide nanoparticle functionalized with molecular marker is a new class of imaging agent to visualize the specific molecular event inside living animal or human. MT1-MMP plays a critical role in tumor progression and metastasis and has become a promising diagnostic cell surface marker. Therefore, our purpose was to obtain the MR image of MT1-MMP in cancer bearing nude mice using biotinylated monoclonal anti-MT1-MMP antibody conjugated streptavidinylated ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxides (USPIOs) (MT1-MMP-USPIOs). The results showed strong MR contrast change in the human liver cancer (SK-HEP-1 cells) but not in the human colon cancer (HT-29 cells) after intravenous injection of MT1-MMP-USPIOs. Furthermore, Prussian Blue staining assessed the internalized MT1-MMP-USPIOs into the SK-HEP-1 derived tumor cells. Taken together, our results suggest that the targeting of an early diagnosis of human liver cancer (SK-HEP-1 cells) is feasible by using MT1-MMP-USPIOs.