Using Calcitriol Conjugated Quantum Dots to Target Inflammatory Breast Cancer Tumors and Metastasis In Vivo

Calcitriol is the active form of Vitamin D3. Epidemiological data show that women with Vitamin D deficiency at the time of breast cancer diagnosis are 94% more likely to experience cancer spread and 73% more likely to die over the next 10 years, compared to women with adequate Vitamin D levels. Since vitamin D deficiency is especially common in African American and obese women, this observation may partially explain the relatively poor clinical outcome experienced by these patients [2]. Although current treatments for IBC are very aggressive and include surgery and radiation, IBC is still the most deadly breast cancer and has a survival rate of only 40% past 5 years. Novel treatments are desperately needed [3]. Current limitations for the use of calcitriol as a treatment for IBC and non-IBC breast cancer is that high concentrations of calcitriol must be delivered to the tumor. This is even more complicated for IBC, since the tumor rapidly metastasizes and disseminates trough the lymphatic system. We successfully designed Mucin-1 (MUC-1) antibody-calcitriol conjugated Quantum Dots (MC-QDs) that infiltrate the lymphatic system and also accumulate at the original and distant tumor sites. using this approach we analyzed the distribution and accumulation of MC-QDs in vivo in an inflammatory breast cancer mouse model over 4 days using an IVES Lumina system. After 4 days, organs were extracted and accumulation of nanoparticles was analyzed. using quantitative image analysis we showed that the MC-DS accumulate at the tumor site as well as at the metastasized organs and tissues. The obtained data suggest that quantum dots can be used to image drug-tumor interactions in vivo and to deliver therapeutics to the tumor and metastasized sites as well.