How to overcome the disturbing effects of human anti-mouse antibodies (HAMA) on in vitro assays.

The development of human anti-mouse antibodies (HAMA) is a common immune response in patients with ovarian carcinoma after repeated injections of murine anti-CA 125 monoclonal antibodies for immunoscintigraphy. As a tumor marker with significant diagnostic value CA 125 is routinely measured in the follow-up of tumor patients by immunoradiometric assays (IRMA) based on murine anti-CA 125 monoclonal antibodies. HAMA may cause false-positive findings in a CA 125-IRMA.

Reduced glutathione and S-acetylglutathione as selective apoptosis-inducing agents in cancer therapy.

The effect of reduced glutathione (GSH) and S-acetylglutathione (S-acglu) treatment on several tumor cell lines and normal cells in vitro was investigated. GSH and S-acglu applied at concentrations of 1 mM and 2 mM induced apoptosis in malignant cells as shown by DNA-fragmentation and staining of apoptotic cells with 7-amino-actinomycin D while viability and growth of normal cells were not significantly influenced by this treatment. The results demonstrated that GSH and S-acglu may be selective inducers of apoptosis in malignant cells.

Generation of human monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies with specificity to the murine monoclonal anti-CA 125 antibody B43.13.

Two human monoclonal antibodies, HID-7E7 and ROB-6F2, were produced by EBV transformation of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). PBL were obtained from a patient with ovarian cancer who had been exposed several times to a Tc-99m labeled murine monoclonal anti-CA 125 antibody (B43.13, Biomira, Edmonton) for immunoscintigraphy.

Immunological profile of patients with ovarian-cancer under immunostimulation with murine monoclonal-antibodies.

The longer survival of ovarian cancer patients after immunostimulation has been connected with the induction of an anti-tumor activity triggered by cellular and humoral immune responses. Our interest was to study the long-term influence on the immune system in relation to the various levels of the HAMA response and the disease stage. The immunological profile was evaluated by regularly performing phenotyping and functional analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL).