{"doi":"10.17615/bmxd-6g95","title":"In vitro and in vivo assessment of targeting lipid-based nanoparticles to the epidermal growth factor-receptor (EGFR) using a novel Heptameric ZEGFR domain","abstract":"Lipid-based oil-filled nanoparticles (NPs) with a high concentration of surface-chelated nickel (Ni-NPs) were successfully prepared using a Brij78-NTA-Ni conjugate synthesized with Brij 78 (Polyoxyethylene (20) stearyl ether) and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA). The facile incorporation of the Brij 78-NTA-Ni conjugate into the NP formulation allowed up to 90% Ni incorporation, which was a significant improvement over the previously used standard agent DOGS-NTA-Ni which led to ~6% Ni incorporation. The Ni-NPs were targeted to the highly epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-overexpressing epidermoid carcinoma cells A431. This was accomplished using a novel high affinity histidine×6-tagged EGFR-binding Z domain (heptameric ZEGFR domain). In vitro cell uptake studies showed enhanced internalization (up to 90%) of the targeted Ni-NPs in A431 cells with only ≤10% internalization of the of untargeted Ni-NPs. ICP-MS analysis used to quantify the amount of Ni in the cells were in close agreement with flow cytometry studies, which showed a dose dependent increase in the amount of Ni with the targeted Ni-NPs. Cell uptake competition studies showed that internalization of the targeted Ni-NPs within the cells was competed off with free heptameric ZEGFR domain at concentrations of 8.75 ng/mL or higher. In vivo studies were carried out in nude mice bearing A431 tumors to determine the biodistribution and intracellular delivery. Near Infrared (NIR) optical imaging studies using Alexa750-labeled heptameric ZEGFR domain showed localization of 19% of the total detected fluorescence intensity in the tumor tissue, 28% in the liver and 42% in the kidneys 16 h post i.v. injection. ICP-MS analysis showed almost a two-fold increase in the amount of intracellular Ni with the targeted Ni-NPs. These new Ni-NPs could be a very useful tool for targeting and drug delivery to a wide range of EGFR positive cancers.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":140845,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9624,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":595720,"name":"Matthew C. Parrott","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":380760,"name":"Rihe Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-0793-9064","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432365,"name":"J. Christopher Luft","orcid":"0000-0003-2042-7397","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":605621,"name":"Dongwook Kim","orcid":"0000-0001-5885-9975","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":320866,"name":"S. Rahima Benhabbour","orcid":"0000-0002-4738-5871","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":605622,"name":"Saurabh Wadhwa","orcid":"0000-0002-0154-681X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":606213,"name":"Anekant Jain","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":408402,"name":"Russell J. Mumper","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371630,"name":"Joseph M. DeSimone","orcid":"0000-0001-9521-5095","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:20.701143Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}