Abstract 2654: Inhibition of lymphoma interactions withangiogenic and lymphangiogenic endotheliumusing αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A, an anti-CD20 endostatin fusion protein
Authors: Elledge Christian , Shin Seung-Uon , Das Rathin , Zhang Yu , Cho Hyun-Mi , Ramakrishnan Sundaram , Sankar Ankita , Rosenblatt Joseph 
Published: June 2023

Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that frequently metastasizes. Lymphoma dissemination into distant sites is the primary cause of cancer mortality. Lymphoma metastasis requires development of supporting vasculature in which the interaction between malignant B cells and the vasculature or lymphatics is critical to tumor cell growth and dissemination.

Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) or human lymphatic endothelial cells (HLEC) cultured on Matrigel, in vitro, assemble into networks of capillary like structures (CLS) or lymphatic like structures (LLS). When Mino or Jeko-1 MCL cells are co-cultured with vascular or lymphatic cells they migrate toward and anneal to nascent CLS or LLS. We constructed a novel antibody fusion protein, αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A, to inhibit such interactions. αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A links an αCD20 human IgG1 targeting domain and a mutant version of human endostatin, huEndoP125A, with enhanced anti-angiogenic properties. αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A completely inhibits CLS or LLS formation and prevents the alignment and annealing of MCL to CLS or LLS. αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A also significantly reduces both endothelial and MCL migration and invasion in vitro.

Cell migration and trafficking is tightly regulated by chemokine interactions with corresponding chemokine receptors. We assayed for the presence of chemokines using a dot blot chemokine array. Jeko-1 and HUVEC cells were cultured on Matrigel, alone or together in co-culture, and either treated with αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A or left untreated. CXCL12 was expressed at high levels in HUVEC cultures undergoing CLS formation and expression was further increased in HUVEC and MCL co-cultures. HUVEC or HUVEC/MCL co-cultures treated with αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A showed markedly decreased CXCL12 expression. Flow cytometry showed that corresponding chemokine receptor CXCR4 was upregulated on MCL cells compared to normal B cells. CXCR4 was also upregulated on HUVEC undergoing CLS formation, and further increased on HUVEC in co-culture with MCL cells. αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A inhibited HUVEC CLS formation, reduced MCL migration to and alignment with nascent CLS or LLS, downregulated CXCL12 levels in HUVEC or coculture supernatants, and reduced CXCR4 expression on both HUVEC and MCL cells.

Murine 38c13-huCD20 lymphoma cells were implanted s.c. into C3H mice and mice were treated i.p. with either PBS, Rituximab, or equimolar αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A. Mice treated with αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A showed significantly reduced tumor growth compared to mice treated with PBS or rituximab. αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A ability to inhibit angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and lymphoma association with angiogenic or lymphatic vasculature may be a potent means of preventing lymphoma growth and metastasis.

Citation Format: Christian Elledge, Seung-Uon Shin, Rathin Das, Yu Zhang, Hyun-Mi Cho, Sundaram Ramakrishnan, Ankita Sankar, Joseph Rosenblatt. Inhibition of lymphoma interactions withangiogenic and lymphangiogenic endotheliumusing αCD20-IgG1-huEndoP125A, an anti-CD20 endostatin fusion protein [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2654.