P1-12-08: Induction of Adhesion Molecules on Target Cells Maximizes Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity of Anti-Her2 Therapeutic Antibody with High Fucose Glycan.
Authors: X Jia, P-Y Wong, H Gazzano-Santoro
Journal: Cancer Research (2011)

Abstract Background: Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) is one pivotal effector function of certain therapeutic antibodies. ADCC is the lysis of antibody-coated target cells by effector cells expressing Fc receptors (FcR) that recognize the fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of the bound antibody. Higher fucosylated terminal glycan on Fc results in significantly lower ADCC activity because core fucose sterically hinders the binding of Fc region to FcR on effector cells. The role of adhesion molecules in ADCC is unclear but it has been reported that adhesion molecules help better orientation of effector cells (natural killer cells) toward adhesion molecule-coated beads. We hypothesize that a preferable association of effector cells and target cells mediated by adhesion molecules may compensate ADCC loss due to the steric hindrance of high core fucose on Fc. Recombinant humanized monoclonal anti-Her2 antibodies (anti-Her2 rhuMAb) at various fucosylation levels have been used in this study to evaluate the role of adhesion molecules in ADCC of antibodies with high fucose glycan. Materials and Methods: Natural killer (NK) cell line transfected with FcR were used as effector cells. Her2-expressing breast cancer cell lines BT-474 and SK-BR3 were used as target cells. Adhesion molecules were induced in target cells by incubation with 50ng/ml of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (TNFa) for 1–2 days. Anti-Her2 rhuMAbs with different Fc fucosylation (G0-F from &amp;lt;1% to &amp;gt;2%) were added in the co-culture of effector cells and target cells. ADCC activities were quantitated by target cells lysis assessment using Europium-TDA release assay. Results: Untreated BT-474 or SK-BR3 target cells had very little adhesion molecule expression. A high fucosylated anti-Her2 rhuMAb induced 52% of target cell lysis, which represented two-thirds of cell lysis by a low fucosylated Ab. Increment of E:T ratio could not maximize ADCC activities. With TNFa treatment, target cell lysis was increased from 52% to 100% by high fucose rhuMAb. This enhancement of ADCC activities is probably due to the expression of adhesion molecules such as ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, which was shown to be up-regulated by 100-fold on target cells in the presence of TNFa. Our data suggested that ADCC activities in Her2-expressing breast cancer cell lines were HER2−specific, anti-HER2 rhuMAb-dependent and adhesion molecules were indispensible for the enhanced ADCC activities. Discussion: rhuMAbs produced in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines may contain various Fc fucosylation, hence various ADCC activities. Although up-regulation of adhesion molecules alone cannot lyse target cells directly, our data suggested maximized ADCC activities by rhuMAbs with high Fc fucosylation level could be achieved by induction of adhesion molecule expression on target cells. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-12-08.