Affiliations: Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein Cancer Center, The Bronx, New York 10467, USA
Correspondence:
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Correspondence and reprint requests to: Kevin P. O'Boyle, MD, Department of Oncology, Montefiore Medical Center, 111 E. 210 th Street, The Bronx, NY 10467, USA.
Note: [*] Kevin P. O'Boyle was a Charles A. Dana Fellow, a recipient of an American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and a recipient of an American Cancer Society Career Development Award.
Abstract: Partially desialylated ovine submaxillary mucin plus an immunological adjuvant has been used by us to induce a humoral immune response to Tn antigen and sialylated Tn in colon cancer patients at risk of recurrence. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were purified from one of these patients with a high IgM titer reactive with Tn antigen transformed with Epstein-Barr virus and subsequently fused with a human-mouse heteromyeloma cell line, HMMA2.11TG/O. Clones were screened and sub cloned using an enzyme-linked immunoassay and four stable IgM-secreting clones were tested for reactivity with a variety of natural and synthetic antigens, paraffin-embedded colon carcinomas and normal colonic mucosa to determine their specificity. Four human IgM monoclonal antibodies reactive predominantly with Tn antigen were produced and shown to react with a mucinous human colon carcinoma cell line, LS-174T, and with paraffin-embedded human colon carcinomas. We conclude that modified ovine submaxillary mucin is an effective vaccine for generating a humoral immune response directed to Tn antigen present on human colon cancer.
