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Noble, Philip W. (2011) Characterisation of anti-glycan monoclonal antibodies. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

The aims of this thesis are to establish the therapeutic value of two anti-glycan mAbs produced in-house, to develop an immunisation protocol with the aim of improving the immunogenicity tumour-associated glycolipids with the intention of producing therapeutically valuable mAbs and to determine the implication of a mAb with the ability to induce apoptosis in colorectal cancer.

The anti-glycan mAbs 692/29 and 505/4 have previously been produced in-house and this study aimed to determine their fine specificity using a glycan array. 692/29 displayed binding predominantly to Lewis b as well as Lewis y-containing glycans. 505/4 was discovered to bind to sialyl Lewis a as well as sialyl di-Lewis a, with no cross-reactivity with other blood group antigens. This was compared to other anti-Lewis mAbs, with differences in specificity being observed. Characterisation of 505/4 mAb distribution showed binding to 80% of colorectal tumours and low levels of binding to normal tissues by IHC, suggesting it may be therapeutically useful.

This thesis aimed to assess the ability of 505/4 and 692/29 to meditate immune mediated and non-immune mediated cell death as well as to determine whether non-immune-mediated cell death would be a desirable therapeutic property. Resistance to apoptosis is one of the hallmarks of cancer cells and mAbs stimulating apoptosis may not be very effective. Alternatively, cancer cells are driven to initiate apoptosis by genomic and other aberrations thus if pro-apoptotic pathways are stimulated these cells may be more susceptible to death than normal cells. To investigate the significance of apoptosis in cancer a large tissue microarray of colorectal tumours was assessed for apoptosis and its relationship to patient prognosis. Cleaved caspase-3 is a good marker of apoptosis as it is the executioner caspase for both the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. Immunohistochemical analysis of colorectal tumour samples revealed that a high expression of cleaved caspase-3 in tumour was associated with good prognosis in colorectal cancer. This suggested that some tumours were still susceptible to apoptotic death but some are resistant and an alternative mechanism of cell death may be an advantage in these tumours. High expression of cleaved caspase-3 in the tumour-associated stroma was also an independent marker of good prognosis in colorectal cancer. This may be because apoptosis of the tumour-associated stroma reduces the level of pro-tumour signals originating from tumour-associated immune cells and stromal cells. As the tumour microenvironment can act in an immunosuppressive and pro-tumour manner, the ability of a mAb to induce direct cell death without the need for effector cells or complement would be an advantage. Lewis y and Lewis b are blood group antigens commonly overexpressed on the surface of a range of cancers. Characterisation of effector functions of 505/4 and 692/29 demonstrated that both mAbs have the ability to mediate apoptosis by antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity, complement dependent cytotoxicity and cause direct cell death in an oncosis-like manner. Comparison with other anti-Lewis mAbs demonstrated that a number of anti-Lewis mAbs can induce direct cell death independently of apoptosis. Thus, they could effectively target apoptotic sensitive and resistant colorectal cancers.

Tumours aberrantly express glycolipids and these molecules may be involved in a number of cellular pathways. In addition a large proportion of anti-glycan mAbs, including 505/4 and 692/29 in this thesis, have displayed the ability to induce direct cell death. Therefore this thesis aimed to develop an immunisation protocol capable of increasing the immunogenicity of tumour-associated glycolipid for the production of anti-tumour glycolipid mAbs directed against ovarian cancer. This study suggests that the incorporation of tumour glycolipid into liposomes and their immunisation along with the iNKT cell adjuvant α-galactosylceramide, elicits an anti-tumour glycolipid immune response, which can yield IgG mAbs capable of binding a high proportion of ovarian cancers.

In summary, this thesis confirmed specificity of 692/29 to Lewis y and Lewis b and 505/4 to sialyl Lewis a and sialyl di-Lewis a. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrated a promising tissue distribution of 505/4 in vitro. Characterisation of mAb effector functions suggest that both Lewis y and sialyl Lewis a directed mAbs have the ability to cause direct cell death, independently of apoptosis in antigen positive cells, as well as the ability to cause immune-mediated cell death. This may be an important factor in the immune-suppressive tumour microenvironment. Furthermore, this thesis provides the basis for the production of new anti-glycolipid antibodies that may also be able to induce direct cell death.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Durrant, L.G. Spendlove, I.
Subjects:	QS-QZ Preclinical sciences (NLM Classification) > QW Microbiology. Immunology
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Molecular Medical Sciences
Item ID:	12071
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	07 Mar 2012 13:50
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2017 18:52
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12071

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