The development of
biological agents for the treatment of solid tumours is an area of considerable activity. We are pursuing
carbohydrate-
binding proteins (
lectins) in a strategy aimed at targeting
cancer-associated changes in glycosylation. To evaluate
lectin-
cancer cell interactions we developed a novel cell biosensor in which binding events take place at the cell surface, more closely mimicking an in vivo system. Metastatic, SW620, and non-metastatic, SW480,
colorectal cancer cells were grown on the surface of a tissue-culture compatible
polystyrene coated biosensor chip and housed in a
quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) apparatus, the kinetics of binding of a diverse range of
lectins was evaluated. The
lectin Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA) has been shown to bind aggressive metastatic
cancer and was produced in recombinant form (His- and RFP-tagged). The affinity of HPA was in the nanomolar range to the metastatic SW620 cells but was only in the micromolar range to the non-metastatic SW480. Overall, the dissociation constant (K(D)) of the
lectins tested in the new cell biosensor system was an order of magnitude lower (nanomolar range) than has generally been reported with systems such as QCM/SPR. This new cell-biosensor enables molecular interactions to be studied in a more relevant environment. An intrinsic problem with developing new
biological therapies is the difficulty in determining the affinity with which
proteins will interact with intact cell surfaces. This methodology will be of interest to researchers developing new
biological approaches for targeting cell surfaces in a wide range of diseases, including
cancer.