Effector cell analysis of human multidrug-resistant cell killing by mouse-human chimeric antibody against...

A mouse-human chimeric monoclonal antibody (mAb), MH162, against P-glycoprotein was previously found to be more effective than an all-mouse mAb (MRK16) in lysis of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tumor cells by blood mononuclear cells. The present study was performed to identify the effector cells responsible for the chimeric mAb-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) against MDR cells. The ADCC reaction was assessed by a 6-h 51Cr release assay. Highly purified lymphocytes (greater than 99%), monocytes (greater than 99%) and neutrophils (greater than 96%) were obtained from peripheral blood of the same healthy donors. A comparison of these three effector cell populations showed no difference between MH162 and its all-murine counterpart MRK16 in MDR cell lysis by monocytes or neutrophils. But MH162 was more effective than MRK16 in lymphocyte-mediated lysis of the MDR cells. The lymphocytes responsible for this ADCC had CD16+ Fc receptors. Pretreatment of monocytes with colony-stimulating factors (IL-3, GM-CSF and M-CSF) caused significant increase in their MH162-mediated lysis of MDR cells. Another anti-P-glycoprotein chimeric mAb (MH171) was also more effective than its murine counterpart MRK17 in lymphocyte-mediated lysis of MDR cells. These findings suggest that mouse-human chimeric mAbs may be useful therapeutically for in vivo destruction of MDR cancer cells by the ADCC reaction.