Lymphoma-selective antibody Lym-1 recognizes a discontinuous epitope on the light chain of HLA-DR10.

The selectivity of Lym-1 for malignant B lymphocytes makes this monoclonal antibody a promising candidate for the delivery of toxic agents to malignant B cells. The original immunogen used for the development of Lym-1 was Raji Burkitt's lymphoma cell nuclei [Epstein A. L., Marder R. J., Winter J. N., Stathopoulos E., Chen F. M., Parker J. W., Taylor C. R. (1987) Cancer Res 47: 830]. The Lym-1 antigen was characterized at that time as a polymorphic HLA-DR variant. We prepared an affinity column using immobilized Lym-1 to isolate the Lym-1 antigen from Raji cell lysate. Immunological characterization of the immunoaffinity-purified Lym-1 antigen on Western blots led to the conclusion that the antigen is the beta chain of HLA-DR10. This was confirmed by Edman sequencing of the isolated polypeptide chain. Western blots further show that the Lym-1 epitope is only recognized if the beta chain disulfide bonds are intact. These results imply that Lym-1 binds a discontinuous epitope on the beta chain of HLA-DR10.