Detection of fluorine labeled herceptin using cellular (19)F 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 ((19)F 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 72h treatments decreased to 54+/-2%, 50+/-3% and 45+/-1% for herceptin, herceptin/PFOB and herceptin/PFOB/Lipoplex, respectively. The EC(50) values were 1000microg/ml, 930microg/ml and 730microg/ml, respectively. The significant correlation between the treatment concentration and efficacy was observed in MCF-7 cell cultures.