Abstract 3194: Discovery of T cell receptor mimic antibody against MAGE-A4 with single B-cell cloning platform
Authors: Cheng Hao , Wu You , Shi Tianfeng , Yu Yang , Wang Min , Jia Chenjun , Xin Wenfang , Liu Hu , Yang Teddy , Yao Danmei 
Published: March 2024

Antibody therapeutics has been proven clinically against various cancer types and have achieved great success. Majority of the therapeutic antibodies target cell surface or extracellular proteins. Most of the tumor-specific antigens that control cell growth, proliferation, and death are intracellular, and traditional antibody therapies fail to recognize intracellular antigen targets. Such tumor specific intracellular targets consist of overexpressed self antigens, oncofetal protein, cancer testis antigens, viral protein and neo-antigens of mutant proteins. Recently, an emerging approach to target these neo-epitopes has been developed called T-cell receptor-like/TCR-mimic antibodies as they recognize similar epitopes to those of T cell receptors which target specific peptide-MHC complexes(pMHC). TCR mimic antibodies open a new avenue for targeting intracellular antigens yet there are lots of challenges for generating highly selective and potent TCR mimic antibodies. MAGE-A4, melanoma-associated antigen A4, is a member of the MAGE protein family of cancer-testis antigen (CTA). In healthy adult, MAGE-A4 expression is restricted to immune-privileged sites. But MAGE-A4 is widely expressed on many cancers such as lung cancer, head and neck squamous cell cancer, synovial sarcoma(SS), ovarian cancer, urothelial cancer and melanoma. The decapeptide GVYDGREHTV(amino acids 230-239) derived from MAGE-A4, can be presented by HLA-A*02:01 molecule, elicits specific cytotoxicity T cell response. Afami-cel, a genetically modified autologous T cell therapy against this pMHC complex, showed promising potency for patients with metastatic SS. So MAGE-A4/HLA-A*02:01 may be a good target for TCR mimic antibodies and cancer immunotherapy. In the present study, we utilized a newly established single cell cloning platform LyTARS to generate TCR mimic antibodies against HLA restricted MAGE-A4 peptide. Recombinant HLA-A*02:01 MAGE-A4 protein was used to immunize mice and plasma B cells from immunized mice were sorted and loaded onto LyTARS system. Clones that showed reactivity to recombinant HLA-A*02:01 MAGE-A4 but not to irrelevant pMHC (WT-1) were exported and sequenced. Purified antibodies were extensively characterized by the specificity, affinity, and potency by ADCC. Results demonstrated that the TCR mimic antibodies identified have sub-nano molar affinity by protein based ELISA, bind to peptide pulsed T2 cells that endogenously expressing HLA with nano-Molar apparent affinity. TCR mimic antibodies also demonstrated antibody dependent cell killing with the potency of sub-nanomolar. In summary, we have generated and extensively characterized a panel of high affinity and selective TCR mimic antibodies against HLA-A*02:01 MAGE-A4 using a newly established single cell cloning platform.

Citation Format: Hao Cheng, You Wu, Tianfeng Shi, Yang Yu, Min Wang, Chenjun Jia, Wenfang Xin, Hu Liu, Teddy Yang, Danmei Yao. Discovery of T cell receptor mimic antibody against MAGE-A4 with single B-cell cloning platform [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 3194.