MRP-1 Protein Expression and Glutathione Content of In Vitro Tumor Cell Lines Derived from Human Glioma Carcinoma U-87-MG Do Not Interact with 99mTc-Glucarate Uptake

Untiring Pursuit for Glucarate-Based Molecular Imaging Probes

Glucarate, a physiologic end-product of the D-glucuronic acid pathway in mammals, is a six-carbon dicarboxylic acid with a wide range of uses. Glucarate-based molecular imaging probes including [^99mTc]glucarate and [¹⁸F]glucarate have been developed and demonstrated to have infarct/necrosis-avid and/or tumor-seeking properties, showing potential applications in early detection of myocardial infarction, evaluation of tissue viability, monitoring of therapeutic effectiveness, and noninvasive imaging of certain tumors including drug-resistant ones. The mechanism by which [^99mTc]glucarate localizes in acute necrotic tissues has been demonstrated to be largely attributable to its binding to the positively charged histones, which become accessible after the disruption of the cell and nuclear membranes as a result of irreversible damage, while the tumor-seeking mechanism of [^99mTc]glucarate has been found to be closely related to glucose transporter 5 expression. Moreover, the recently developed [¹⁸F]glucarate provides a new alternative probe for positron emission tomography imaging and may have potential advantages over [^99mTc]glucarate. In this review, we present the untiring pursuit for glucarate-based molecular imaging probes as infarct/necrosis-avid agent and/or tumor-seeking agent. Moreover, the limitations and the prospects for future research of glucarate-based molecular probes are also discussed.

Avenues to molecular imaging of dying cells: Focus on cancer

Successful treatment of cancer patients requires balancing of the dose, timing, and type of therapeutic regimen. Detection of increased cell death may serve as a predictor of the eventual therapeutic success. Imaging of cell death may thus lead to early identification of treatment responders and nonresponders, and to “patient‐tailored therapy.” Cell death in organs and tissues of the human body can be visualized, using positron emission tomography or single‐photon emission computed tomography, although unsolved problems remain concerning target selection, tracer pharmacokinetics, target‐to‐nontarget ratio, and spatial and temporal resolution of the scans. Phosphatidylserine exposure by dying cells has been the most extensively studied imaging target. However, visualization of this process with radiolabeled Annexin A5 has not become routine in the clinical setting. Classification of death modes is no longer based only on cell morphology but also on biochemistry, and apoptosis is no longer found to be the preponderant mechanism of cell death after antitumor therapy, as was earlier believed. These conceptual changes have affected radiochemical efforts. Novel probes targeting changes in membrane permeability, cytoplasmic pH, mitochondrial membrane potential, or caspase activation have recently been explored. In this review, we discuss molecular changes in tumors which can be targeted to visualize cell death and we propose promising biomarkers for future exploration.

Hypoxic Stress Induced by Hydralazine Leads to a Loss of Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity and an Increase in Efflux Transporter Activity

Understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms induced by hypoxic stress is crucial to reduce blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption in some neurological diseases. Since the brain is a complex organ, it makes the interpretation of in vivo data difficult, so BBB studies are often investigated using in vitro models. However, the investigation of hypoxia in cellular pathways is complex with physical hypoxia because HIF-1α (factor induced by hypoxia) has a short half-life. We had set up an innovative and original method of induction of hypoxic stress by hydralazine that was more reproducible, which allowed us to study its impact on an in vitro BBB model. Our results showed that hydralazine, a mimetic agent of the hypoxia pathway, had the same effect as physical hypoxia, with few cytotoxicity effects on our cells. Hypoxic stress led to an increase of BBB permeability which corresponded to an opening of our BBB model. Study of tight junction proteins revealed that this hypoxic stress decreased ZO-1 but not occludin expression. In contrast, cells established a defence mechanism by increasing expression and activity of their efflux transporters (Pgp and MRP-1). This induction method of hypoxic stress by hydralazine is simple, reproducible, controllable and suitable to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved by hypoxia on the BBB.

Investigations of (99m)Tc-labeled glucarate as a SPECT radiotracer for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and potential tumor uptake mechanism

This study attempted to evaluate the feasibility of (99m)Tc-labeled glucarate ((99m)Tc-GLA) imaging in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the potential tumor uptake mechanism. Cell lysates from two NSCLC cell lines, H292 and H1975, were immunoblotted with anti-glucose transporter 5 (GLUT5) antibody for Western blotting. Thereafter, the two cell lines were used to examine cellular uptake of (99m)Tc-GLA with or without fructose. SPECT/CT imaging studies were performed on small animals bearing H292 and H1975 tumors. Biodistribution studies were also conducted to achieve accurate tissue uptake of this tracer in two tumor models. Hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) staining and GLUT5, Ki67 and cytokeratin-7 (CK-7) immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis were further investigated on tumor tissues. In Western blotting, H292 cells showed higher levels of GLUT5 compared to the H1975 cells. Meanwhile, the in vitro cell assays indicated GLUT5-dependent uptake of (99m)Tc-GLA in H292 and H1975 cells. The fructose competition assays showed a significant decrease in (99m)Tc-GLA uptake by H292 and H1975 cells when fructose was added. The (99m)Tc-GLA accumulation was as much as two-fold higher in H292 implanted tumors than in H1975 implanted tumors. (99m)Tc-GLA exhibited rapid clearance pharmacokinetics and reasonable uptake in human NSCLC H292 (1.69±0.37 ID%/g) and H1975 (0.89±0.06 ID%/g) implanted tumors at 30min post injection. Finally, the expression of GLUT5, Ki67 and CK-7 on tumor tissues also exhibited positive correlation with the in vitro cell test results and in vivo SPECT/CT imaging results in xenograft tumors. Both in vitro and ex vivo studies demonstrated that the uptake of (99m)Tc-GLA in NSCLC is highly related to GLUT5 expression. Imaging and further IHC results support that (99m)Tc-GLA could be a promising SPECT imaging agent for NSCLC diagnosis and prognosis evaluation.

Is [(99m)Tc]glucarate uptake mediated by fructose transporter GLUT-5?

PURPOSE

There is growing interest in the ability of [(99m)Tc]Glucarate ([(99m)Tc]GLA) to accumulate in viable tumor cells. Recent vivo studies suggest that [(99m)Tc]Glucarate could be helpful for tumor detection. Fructose transport is thought to be implicated. It is clearly established that facilitated fructose transport in tumor cells is related to the GLUT-5 transporter. This study therefore investigated whether [(99m)Tc]GLA uptake is mediated by GLUT-5 transporter.

METHODS

Different tumor cell lines were used. Modulation of GLUT-5 expression was assessed with and without antisense oligonucleotides directed against GLUT-5. GLUT-5 expression was assessed by indirect cell ELISA. To correlate GLUT-5 expression with tracer accumulation, [(99m)Tc]GLA uptake was determined after antisense treatment. A competition with fructose was also monitored.

RESULTS

Inhibition of GLUT-5 expression by antisense oligonucleotides directed against GLUT-5 was effective after 24 h. An optimal of 10μM antisense oligonucleotides directed against GLUT-5 produced a 30%-40% decrease in protein expression. Modulation of [(99m)Tc]GLA uptake was monitored either by use of specific antisense oligonucleotides or by competition with fructose. Both of them produced a significant decrease of [(99m)Tc]GLA accumulation in all tested cell lines.

CONCLUSION

Our results clearly demonstrate that [(99m)Tc]GLA uptake is related to GLUT-5 transporter expression and transport. In tumor imaging, [(99m)Tc]GLA may be a useful tool for non-invasive detection of malignant tumors expressing high levels of GLUT-5 transporter as, for example, breast cancers.

Relationships between genetic polymorphisms and transcriptional profiles for outcome prediction in anticancer agent treatment

In the era of personal genomics, predicting the individual response to drug-treatment is a challenge of biomedical research. The aim of this study was to validate whether interaction information between genetic and transcriptional signatures are promising features to predict a drug response. Because drug resistance/susceptibilities result from the complex associations of genetic and transcriptional activities, we predicted the inter-relationships between genetic and transcriptional signatures. With this concept, captured genetic polymorphisms and transcriptional profiles were prepared in cancer samples. By splitting ninety-nine samples into a trial set (n = 30) and a test set (n = 69), the outperformance of relationship-focused model (0.84 of area under the curve in trial set, P = 2.90 x 10⁻⁴) was presented in the trial set and validated in the test set, respectively. The prediction results of modeling show that considering the relationships between genetic and transcriptional features is an effective approach to determine outcome predictions of drug-treatment.