Site-specifically conjugated anti-HER2 Affibody molecules as one-step reagents for target expression analyses on cells and xenograft samples.

Affibody molecules are a class of small and robust affinity proteins that can be generated to interact with a variety of antigens, thus having the potential to provide useful tools for biotechnological research and diagnostic applications. In this study, we have investigated Affibody-based reagents interacting specifically with the tyrosine kinase receptor HER2. A head-to-tail dimeric construct was site-specifically conjugated with different fluorescent and enzymatic groups resulting in reagents that were used for detection and quantification. The amount of cell surface expressed HER2 on eleven (11) well characterized cell lines was quantified relative to each other by flow cytometry and shown to correlate well with results from parallel analyses of HER2 mRNA levels measured by real-time PCR. Further, immunofluorescence microscopy studies of the cell lines and immunohistochemical analyses of cryosections of HER2 expressing SKOV-3 xenografts showed strong staining of the plasma membrane of tumor cells with little background staining. Full-length HER2 protein could also be efficiently recovered from a cell extract by an immunoprecipitation procedure, using an Affibody ligand-based resin. These novel non-IgG derived reagents could be used to detect and quantify HER2 expression. By adapting the methods for use with Affibody molecules binding to other cell surface receptors, it is anticipated that also these receptors can be detected and quantified in a similar manner.