A novel bispecific antibody, S-Fab, induces potent cancer cell killing

Li Li1, Ping He, Changhua Zhou

  • 1*School of Pharmaceutical Sciences †Centre for Cellular & Structural biology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou ‡Peking University Cancer Hospital, Beijing Institute for Cancer Research §General Staff Department of PLA, Health Division of Guard Bureau, Beijing, China.

Bispecific antibodies that engage immune cells to kill cancer cells have been actively studied in cancer immunotherapy. In this study, we present a novel bispecific format, S-Fab, fabricated by linking a single-domain anti-carcinoembryonic antigen VHH to a conventional anti-CD3 Fab. In contrast to most bispecific antibodies, the S-Fab bispecific antibody can be efficiently expressed and purified from bacteria. The purified S-Fab is stable in serum and is able to recruit T cells to drive potent cancer cell killing. In xenograft models, the S-Fab antibody suppresses tumor growth in the presence of human immune cells. Our study suggested that the bispecific S-Fab format can be applied to a wide range of immunotherapies.

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