Establishment of anti-mesothelioma monoclonal antibodies

Mesotheliomas are aggressive, therapy-resistant tumors that are predicted to increase in incidence at least until 2020. The prognosis of patients with mesothelioma is generally poor because they are typically diagnosed at a late stage and their tumors are resistant to current conventional therapies. For these reasons, improved diagnosis and therapy are urgently required. To address these issues, the aim of our research was to develop novel mesothelioma-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as diagnostic and therapeutic agents.

To develop anti-mesothelioma mAbs useful for diagnosis and therapy, we repeatedly immunized a BALB/c mouse with viable mesothelioma cells, alternating between those from three mesothelioma cell lines. We hybridized the spleen cells from this immunized mouse with P3U1 myeloma cells. We then screened supernatants harvested from the hybridoma clones by assessing whether they bound to a mesothelioma cell line not used for immunization and altered its morphology. We designed this developmental strategy to reduce the risk of obtaining clonotypic mAbs against a single mesothelioma cell line.

Our newly generated mouse anti-human mAbs immunostained clinical samples of mesotheliomas. One of the newly generated mAbs did not react with any other tumor cell line tested. Two other mAbs significantly inhibited the proliferation of mesothelioma cells.

These newly generated anti-mesothelioma mAbs are potentially useful as diagnostic and therapeutic agents for mesothelioma. Moreover, our novel strategy for establishing antitumor mAbs may facilitate the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for mesotheliomas and other malignancies.