Targeted Therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are highly aggressive, metastatic and recurrent. To this date, there is no efficacious targeted therapy. This study aimed to develop an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a surface receptor overexpressed in TNBC, and deliver high-potency drug. Specifically, an ADC was constructed by conjugating anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody with mertansine which inhibits microtubule assembly. The TNBC-targeting specificity of anti-EGFR ADC was evaluated using cell line (MDA-MB-468) and using TNBC subcutaneous xenograft mouse mode. The confocal laser scanning microscopy and In Vivo Imaging System were used to collect the live-cell and live-animal images, respectively. Finally, both in vitro toxicity assay and in vivo anti-cancer efficacy study showed that the developed ADC significantly inhibited TNBC growth. This study indicated that the anti-EGFR ADC has a great potential to against TNBC.