Enfortumab Vedotin Antibody-Drug Conjugate Targeting Nectin-4 Is a Highly Potent Therapeutic Agent in Multiple Preclinical Cancer Models.

The identification of optimal target antigens on tumor cells is central to the advancement of new antibody-based cancer therapies. We performed suppression subtractive hybridization and identified nectin-4 (PVRL4), a type I transmembrane protein and member of a family of related immunoglobulin-like adhesion molecules, as a potential target in epithelial cancers. We conducted immunohistochemical analysis of 2,394 patient specimens from bladder, breast, lung, pancreatic, ovarian, head/neck, and esophageal tumors and found that 69% of all specimens stained positive for nectin-4.

Development of ASG-15ME, a Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugate Targeting SLITRK6, a New Urothelial Cancer Biomarker.

SLITRK6 is a member of the SLITRK family of neuronal transmembrane proteins that was discovered as a bladder tumor antigen using suppressive subtractive hybridization. Extensive immunohistochemistry showed SLITRK6 to be expressed in multiple epithelial tumors, including bladder, lung, and breast cancer as well as in glioblastoma. To explore the possibility of using SLITRK6 as a target for an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), we generated a panel of fully human mAbs specific for SLITRK6.