EpCAM an immunotherapeutic target for gastrointestinal malignancy: current experience and future challenges

Despite advances in surgery and adjuvant regimes, gastrointestinal malignancy remains a major cause of neoplastic mortality. Immunotherapy is an emerging and now successful treatment modality for numerous cancers that relies on the manipulation of the immune system and its effector functions to eradicate tumour cells. The discovery that the pan-epithelial homotypic cell adhesion molecule EpCAM is differentially expressed on gastrointestinal tumours has made this a viable target for immunotherapy. Clinical trials using naked anti EpCAM antibody, immunoconjugates, anti-idiotypic and dendritic cell vaccines have met variable success. The murine IgG2a Edrecolomab was shown to reduce mortality and morbidity at a level slightly lower than treatment with 5FU and Levamisole when administered to patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma in a large randomised controlled trial. Fully human and trifunctional antibodies that specifically recruit CD3-positive lymphocytes are now being tested clinically in the treatment of minimal residual disease and ascites. Although clinical trials are in their infancy, the future may bring forth an EpCAM mediated approach for the effective activation and harnessing of the immune system to destroy a pathological aberrance that has otherwise largely escaped its attention

A genome-wide expression analysis identifies a network of EpCAM-induced cell cycle regulators

Expression of the epithelial cell adhesion molecule EpCAM is upregulated in a variety of carcinomas. This antigen is therefore explored in tumour diagnosis, and clinical trials have been initiated to examine EpCAM-based therapies. Notably, the possible intracellular effects and signalling pathways triggered by EpCAM-specific antibodies are unknown. Here, we show treatment of the mouse lung carcinoma cell line A2C12, of the human lung carcinoma cell line A549 and the human colorectal cell line Caco-2 with the monoclonal EpCAM antibody G8.8 to cause dose dependently an increase in cell proliferation, as determined by the MTS and the 5′-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labelling assay. Furthermore, a genome-wide approach identified networks of regulated genes, most notably cell cycle regulators, upon treatment with an EpCAM-specific antibody. Indeed, changes in the expression of cell cycle regulators agreed well with the BrdU labelling data, and an analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed the processes with the strongest over-representation of modulated genes, for example, cell cycle, cell death, cellular growth and proliferation, and cancer. These data suggest that EpCAM is involved in signal transduction triggering several intracellular signalling pathways. Knowing EpCAM signalling pathways might lead to a reassessment of EpCAM-based therapies

Einige chemische Aspekte der Osmiumtetroxidfixierung

Das Studium der Reaktionen des OsO4 mit den einzelnen biologischen Substanzen unter den üblichen Bedingungen der Fixierung ergibt, daß das OsO4 vorzüglich mit den Lipoiden reagiert. Die Proteine beteiligen sich in der Hauptsache mit ihren schwefelhaltigen Seitenketten an der Reaktion. Von beiden Substanzgruppen wird das OsO4 zu Os(VI) reduziert und gebunden. Die bevorzugten Bindungsorte des Osmiums in den verschiedenen Gewebestrukturen werden diskutiert. Polysaccharide und verwandte Verbindungen sowie Nucleinsäuren zeigen keine Osmiumaufnahme.</jats:p

Immunohistochemical characterization of a differentiation-specific carbohydrate epitope in the plasma membrane of the epithelial cells of rat small intestine.

The monoclonal antibody (MAb) SI/EC1 was produced by immunization of Balb/c mice with an antigen prepared from the isolated basolateral membrane (BLM) of rat small intestine epithelial cells by trypsin cleavage. Immunohistochemical labeling at the light and electron microscopic level shows that the SI/EC1 epitope is localized in the plasma membrane (PM) of the small intestine epithelial cells and is expressed around Day 21 after birth (weaning time). There are, however, differences in the labeling between crypt and villous cells. In the crypt cells, the microvillous membrane (MVM) and the lateral part of the BLM are strongly labeled, whereas the basal part of the BLM is unlabeled. In the villous cells, both the MVM and the basal and lateral part of the BLM are labeled, but the labeling is not as intense as in the crypts. In immunoblotting experiments with the isolated BLM, three protein bands (125 KD, 110 KD, and 90 KD) were labeled specifically with the MAb. Enzymic cleaving of the BLM with exo- and endoglycosidases and subsequent immunoblotting, as well as other findings, suggest that the specific structure of the SI/EC1 epitope consists mainly of carbohydrates (CH) (oligosaccharides). This finding points out the possibility that this epitope may have something to do with the variable adhesion of the small intestine epithelial cells along the crypt-villus axis. </jats:p

Immunohistochemical characterization of a crypt cell-specific plasma membrane protein in rat small intestine epithelium using a monoclonal antibody.

Proteins of the basolateral membrane (BLM) of small intestine epithelial cells of adult rats, in the MW ranges of 50-65 KD, 85-100 KD, and over 100 KD, were obtained as follows. After isolation of the BLM and subsequent SDS-PAGE and transblotting of the proteins on nitrocellulose sheets, the bands in these MW ranges were cut out of the nitrocellulose sheet and extracted. Balb/C mice were immunized with these protein fractions and a monoclonal antibody (MAb) was then produced. MAb SI/CC1 obtained via immunization with the 50-65 KD protein fraction shows specificity for the crypt epithelium of the small intestine. It can be used to characterize, by light and electron microscopic immunohistochemical methods, a crypt cell protein (SI/CC1-Ag) with a very specific localization. Fluorescence labeling shows that the SI/CC1-Ag can be found only in the epithelium of small intestine crypts (except for the granules in eosinophilic granulocytes). The epithelium of the colon, as well as the epithelia of other organs, could not be labeled. In the small intestine crypts, SI/CC1-Ag is found only in the Paneth cells located in the basal crypt section, and in the undifferentiated cells in the middle crypt section; it is lacking in the cells of the upper crypt section. Gold labeling shows that SI/CC1-Ag in the undifferentiated cells is localized exclusively in the basolateral PM domain. On the Paneth cells, the content of the secretory granules is labeled, along with the basolateral PM domain; the labeling sometimes present on their luminal part is probably due to passively absorbed secretion from these cells. The SI/CC1-Ag in the BLM of undifferentiated and Paneth cells is found only on Days 21-23 post partum, whereas the Paneth cell granules could be labeled as early as the Day 16 post partum. With immunodetection with SI/CC1, one band at about 55 KD is specifically labeled in the protein pattern of the isolated small intestine cell BLM. In the protein pattern of the isolated crypt cells two bands were labeled, again one at 55 KD and one at about 120 KD. These findings indicate that SI/CC1-Ag is a 55 KD protein that appears on Days 21-23 post partum in the BLM of undifferentiated cells and of Paneth cells. </jats:p

A STUDY OF OSMIUM TETROXIDE FIXATION

The specific conditions of osmium fixation have been studied on gelatin gels and bovine pancreas. Protein (gelatin)-bound osmium can be quantitated by a modification of the Majumdar and Sen Gupta test, free and tissue (pancreas)-bound osmium by a modified Bahr test. Using these two methods, the depth of OsO4 penetration after increasing the times of fixation, the osmium concentration gradients and the total concentration of free and bound osmium at given spots within gelatin and tissue blocks have been determined. Warburg type experiments on suspended yeast cells and leukocytes demonstrate that 1% OsO4 stops cell respiration completely only after 40-min incubation. Formalin, 1%, is a more effective respiratory inhibitor. </jats:p

Immunohistochemical localization and characterization of a protein from the basolateral membrane of rat small intestine epithelium using monoclonal antibody GZ-1.

The proteins of the basolateral membrane (BLM) of small intestine epithelial cell in rat have been less precisely described than those of the microvillus membrane (MVM). To identify BLM-specific proteins, Balb/c mice were immunized with isolated intestinal epithelial cells and monoclonal antibodies (MAb) to their cell membrane, produced with the hybridoma technique. One of the MAb so obtained (GZ-1), a class 1 IgG, is specifically directed to a surface membrane protein of intestinal epithelium (GZ-1-Ag). The MAb served to characterize the protein as follows. Light microscopic immunohistochemical FITC labeling and, still more clearly, electron microscopic labeling with colloidal gold on Lowicryl sections of small intestinal tissue, show that the GZ-1-Ag occurs only in BLM of the absorptive cell and the goblet cell. It is not present in the MVM, the tight-junction area, and probably in the desmosomal sections of the membrane. The crypt cells are more markedly labeled with GZ-1 than are the villus cells; the villus cells are also more clearly labeled from the duodenum to the ileum. Gross analysis of the position of the gold marker on the BLM indicates that GZ-1-Ag is probably integrated into the lipid bilayer. With immunoblotting (with HRP as marker), a single band of MW 42,000 D can be identified as the corresponding GZ-1-Ag from the protein band pattern obtained with SDS-PAGE from BLM isolated in the presence of protease inhibitors (PI). In BLM fractions isolated without protease inhibition, a band of MW 30,000 D can be labeled with GZ-1. These results are interpreted as follows: GZ-1-Ag is a protein of MW 42,000 D. On isolation of the BLM without PI, a piece of this protein is broken off by proteolysis. The larger piece of the molecule (30,000 D) is not accessible to the proteolytic enzyme owing to its localization in the BLM, and therefore remains intact (and recognizable by the Ab). The preferred position of the gold marker on the BLM is in agreement with this explanation. </jats:p