Construction of a bacteriophage-derived vector with potential applications in targeted drug delivery and cell imaging

There is a strong relationship between the dysregulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the development of epithelial-derived cancers. Therefore, EGFR has usually been considered the desired target for gene therapy. Here, we propose an approach for targeting EGFR-expressing cells by phage particles capable of displaying EGF and GFP as tumor-targeting and reporting elements, respectively. For this purpose, the superfolder GFP-EGF (sfGFP-EGF) coding sequence was inserted at the N-terminus of the pIII gene in the pIT₂ phagemid. The capability of the constructed phage to recognize EGFR-overexpressing cells was monitored by fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and cell-based ELISA experiments. FACS analysis showed a significant shift in the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of the cells treated with phage displaying sfGFP-EGF compared to phage displaying only sfGFP. The binding of phage displaying sfGFP-EGF to A-431 cells, monitored by fluorescence microscopy, indicated the formation of the sfGFP-EGF-EGFR complex on the surface of the treated cells. Cell-based ELISA experiments showed that phages displaying either EGF or sfGFP-EGF can specifically bind EGFR-expressing cells. The vector constructed in the current study has the potential to be engineered for gene delivery purposes as well as cell-based imaging for tumor detection.