Expression and regulation of luteinizing hormone/human chorionic gonadotropin receptors in ovarian cancer and its correlation to human chorionic gonadotropin-doxorubicin sensitivity.

Objective: Ovarian cancer cell lines and tissues express gonadotropin receptors. Conjugation of cytostatics to ligands of these receptors may increase the specificity of cytotoxic drugs.

Study Design: Toxicity of doxorubicin-human chorionic gonadotropin conjugates was determined in 4 ovarian cancer cell lines.

Cytotoxic effect of conjugates of doxorubicin and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in breast cancer cells.

Cytotoxic activity of drug conjugates of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and doxorubicin alone was investigated compared to doxorubicin in breast cancer cells with and without expression of hCG receptors. Expression of hCG receptor was determined in MCF-7 and MB231 breast cancer cell line using a multiplex nested rt-PCR approach. The entire sequence of mRNA encoding for hCG receptor was detected in MCF-7 but not in MB231 breast cancer cell line.