Characterization of a humanized anti-CD20 antibody with potent antitumor activity against B-cell lymphoma.
Cancer letters 2010 Jan 5; In press
Wu L, Wang C, Zhang D, Zhang X, Qian W, Zhao L, Wang H, Li B, Guo Y
International Joint Cancer Institute and 301 General Hospital Cancer Center, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, and PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, PR China.
Despite the effectiveness of the anti-CD20 chimeric antibody (mAb), rituximab, in treating B-cell lymphomas, its efficacy remains variable and often modest. In this study, a humanized anti-CD20 antibody, hu8E4, was generated by complementarity-determining region grafting method. Hu8E4 was as effective as rituximab in mediating antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and inducing apoptosis in B-lymphoma cells, but it exhibited much more potent complement-dependent cytotoxicity than rituximab. Immunotherapeutic studies showed that hu8E4 was significantly more effective than rituximab in prolonging the survival of severe combined immunodeficient mice bearing human B-cell lymphomas, suggesting that it might be a promising therapeutic agent for B-cell lymphomas.