Abstract
Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the world. The overexpression of tissue factor (TF) in colon cancer cells makes it an ideal target for colon cancer therapy. The purpose of the present study was to develop a TF-targeting energized fusion protein, mlFVII-LDP-AE, which is composed of a mouse Factor VII light chain (mlFVII) as the targeting domain conjugated to the highly cytotoxic antibiotic lidamycin (LDM, LDP-AE) as the effector domain. The potential efficacy of mlFVII-LDP-AE for mouse colon cancer therapy was tested in a mouse colon cancer subcutaneous xenograft model and a live metastasis model in BALB/c mice. mlFVII-LDP-AE showed a tumor growth inhibition rate of 91.2% (at a dose of 0.8 mg/kg) and a tumor metastasis inhibition rate of 84.7% (at a dose of 0.6 mg/kg). The results showed that mlFVII-LDP-AE was able to effectively inhibit the growth and metastasis of mouse colon cancer. As human TF and FVII have features similar to those of mice, human FVII light chain (hlFVII)-targeted LDM (hlFVII-LDP-AE) may be expected to have therapeutic potential for human colon cancer.