Detection of fluorine labeled Herceptin using cellular 19F MRI ex vivo

The aim of this study was to assess the Herceptin efficacy in ex vivo cultures of MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells. Herceptin was used with perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) and conjugated with Lipoplex, containing plasmid DNA and Lipofectamine (LipA), to allow fluorine-19 magnetic resonance imaging (19F MRI) study. Treatments such as Herceptin, Herceptin/PFOB and Herceptin/PFOB/Lipoplex were used for ex vivo targeting of MCF-7 cells cultured in three-dimensional (3D) geometry using hollow fiber bioreactor (HFB) device. The viability of MCF-7 cells after 72 h treatments decreased to 54 ± 2%, 50 ± 3% and 45 ± 1% for Herceptin, Herceptin/PFOB and Herceptin/PFOB/Lipoplex, respectively. The EC50 values were 1000 μg/ml, 930 μg/ml and 730 μg/ml, respectively. The significant correlation between the treatment concentration and efficacy was observed in MCF-7 cell cultures.