Lee H. Pai

Monoclonal antibody K1 reacts with epithelial mesothelioma but not with lung adenocarcinoma.

Immunoperoxidase histochemical staining of cryostat sections from human tumor tissues revealed that a murine monoclonal antibody (MAb), K1, can distinguish epithelial mesotheliomas from lung adenocarcinomas. All of 15 epithelial-type mesotheliomas and all four mixed type mesothelioma samples, but none of 23 lung adenocarcinomas with different degrees of histologic differentiation demonstrated reactivity with antibody K1. Of the cell populations in each mesothelioma tested, 80% to 100% showed strong and homogeneous staining with MAb K1. Immunofluorescence analysis of live cultured cells from an epithelioid mesothelioma (H-meso) and several lung carcinoma cell lines as well as a pleural effusion of a patient with mesothelioma also showed selective reactivity of K1 with the mesothelioma cells. These data indicate that K1 can be useful as a mesothelial cell marker for the differential pathological diagnosis of the epithelial form of mesothelioma; K1 may also be useful in the study of the pathogenesis, immunodiagnosis, and immunotherapy of epithelial-type and mixed-type human malignant mesothelioma.

Pseudomonas Exotoxin Conjugated to Monoclonal Antibody MRK16 Specifically Kills Multidrug Resistant Cells in Cultured Renal Carcinomas and In Mdr-Transgenic Mice

Using renal carcinoma and prostate carcinoma cell lines, we investigated the concept of targeting and killing multidrug resistant cells in urogenital cancers. Renal carcinoma lines HTB44, 45, 46, and 47 expressed a relatively low, but detectable level of multidrug resistance (MDR)1 mRNA as indicated by Northern blot analysis, whereas prostate lines LNCaP and DU145 were found to be MDR1-negative. Anti-P-glycoprotein monoclonal antibody MRK16 was conjugated to Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE) by a stable thioether bond. Treatment with MRK16-PE resulted in a dose-dependent killing of multidrug resistant renal carcinoma cells, while non-MDR expressing prostate carcinoma cells were not affected. Addition of excess MRK16 blocked the effect of MRK16-PE. Furthermore, MOPC-PE, a non-MDR associated monoclonal antibody control conjugate, did not target and kill multidrug resistant renal carcinoma cells. Having established that MRK16-PE was active against and specific for multidrug resistant cells in culture, we also tested bioactivity in MDR-transgenic mice, whose bone marrow cells express the human MDR1 gene at a level approximately equal to that found in many human cancers. Again, MRK16-PE killed multidrug resistant bone marrow cells with high efficiency in an intact animal, and killing was blocked by unconjugated MRK16.