British journal of cancer
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British journal of cancer · Sep 1992
A monoclonal antibody-beta-glucuronidase conjugate as activator of the prodrug epirubicin-glucuronide for specific treatment of cancer.
The anti-pan carcinoma monoclonal antibody (MAb) 323/A3, linked to E. coli-derived beta-glucuronidase (GUS) was used to study the tumour-site-selective activation of the prodrug Epirubicin-glucuronide (Epi-glu). Epi-glu was isolated from the urine of patients treated with Epirubicin (Epi) by reversed phase chromatography on a silica-C18 column. Epi-glu was stable in human blood and was not converted into Epi by A2780, MCF-7, or OVCAR-3 cancer cells, despite the presence of intracellular GUS. ⋯ The low cytotoxicity of Epi-glu was most likely due to the reduced cellular uptake rate of the prodrug (2.7 pmol 10(-6) cells min-1) as compared to that of the parent compound (25 pmol 10(-6) cells min-1). Pretreatment of antigen-positive cells with the 323/A3-GUS conjugate prior to prodrug exposure completely restored cytotoxicity as a result from hydrolysis of Epi-glu into Epi. Our results demonstrate that the 323/A3-GUS conjugate can specifically activate the stable non-toxic prodrug Epi-glu at the tumour cell level.
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British journal of cancer · Sep 1992
Radioimmunotherapy of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma xenografts with 131I-labelled monoclonal antibody E48 IgG.
Monoclonal antibody (MAb) E48 reacts with a 22 kD antigen exclusively expressed in squamous and transitional epithelia and their neoplastic counterparts. Radiolabelled with 99mTc, MAb E48 is capable of targeting metastatic and recurrent disease in patients with head and neck cancer. In this study, the capacity of 131I-labelled MAb E48 to eradicate xenografts of human squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) in nude mice was examined. ⋯ From the tissue distribution of 800 microCi MAb E48, the absorbed cumulative radiation doses of tumour and various organs were calculated using the trapezoid integration method for the area under the curve. To tumour xenografts, 12,170 cGy was delivered, blood received 2,984 cGy, whereas in every other tissue the accumulated dose was less than 6% of the dose delivered to tumour. These data, describing the first radiolabelled MAb with therapeutic efficacy against HNSCC, suggest radioimmunotherapy with MAb E48 to be a potential therapeutic modality for the treatment of head and neck cancer.