Biological characterization of a chimeric mouse-human IgM antibody directed against the 17-1A antigen

Summary The pharmacokinetics of ¹¹¹In-labeled 260F9, a murine monoclonal antibody directed against a breast-cancer-associated antigen, was determined in seven patients with advanced breast cancer. Six patients were administered 1 mg antibody containing 1 mCi ¹¹¹In. The seventh patient was administered 20 mg unlabeled antibody followed by 1 mg ¹¹¹In-labeled antibody all via a peripheral vein. Immunoprecipitation, HPLC and SDS-PAGE gels demonstrated the stability of radiolabel on the antibody. The serum clearance of the radiolabel closely fits (r ²>0.95) a two-compartment model for the first six patients. The apparent volume of distribution of the radiolabel approximated to the plasma volume (3 1) and its mean residence time was 23.7 h. The radiolabel had an average t _1/2 of 22.9±12.21 h at the 1-mg dose. At the 20-mg dose one-compartment elimination kinetics were observed with the radiolabel and antibody showing similar mean residence times (36–41 h) and a t _1/2 of 26–28 h. Whole-body imaging showed that the blood-pool:liver ratio of radioactivity increased fourfold (at 48 h postinfusion) at the higher dose and the percentage of the injected dose of radioactivity in the liver decreased from 25% to 8% (24 h postinfusion).In one patient 7–14 times more radioactivity was localized in a breast tumor than in fat (normal breast). Over the first 25 h an average (cumulative) 7.5% of the total dose was excreted in urine. A study of 260F9 in CDF-1 mice demonstrated that the radiolabel remained associated with the antibody in serum. The antibody, however, cleared 60-fold slower in mice than in patients and showed an increased mean residence time of 191 h. The disparity in the pharmacokinetics of the antibody seen in the mouse and in the clinic, points to the different behavior shown by murine monoclonal antibodies in humans. This points to the need for preliminary studies of antibodies in patients for preclinical evaluations of their effectiveness as drug-targeting agents.