Anti-tumor activity of K1-LysPE38QQR, an immunotoxin targeting mesothelin, a cell-surface antigen overexpressed in ovarian cancer and malignant mesothelioma

Mesothelin, a differentiation antigen, is a 40-kD glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked cell-surface glycoprotein, that is present on the surface of normal mesothelium and is overexpressed in many patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and malignant mesotheliomas. Monoclonal antibody K1 is a murine immunoglobulin G1 that recognizes mesothelin. LysPE38QQR is a truncated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin that lacks the cell-binding domain, but retains the translocation and adenosine diphosphate-ribosylation domains. It has a single lysine residue near the amino terminus that is available for conjugation to antibodies. To prevent chemical conjugation of the antibody to lysine residues at the C-terminus of Pseudomonas exotoxin, the two lysine residues at positions 590 and 606 were mutated to glutamine, and the lysine residue at position 613 was mutated to arginine. Monoclonal antibody K1 was chemically conjugated with LysPE38QQR, by modifying the antibody with sulfosuccinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl)cyclohexane-1-carboxylate and coupling it with SPDP N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate-modified LysPE38QQR. The resulting immunotoxin K1-LysPE38QQR was highly toxic to A431-K5 cells (a human epidermoid carcinoma cell line transfected with a mesothelin expression plasmid) with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 3-6 ng/mL. The immunotoxin had negligible activity against A431 cells, which do not express mesothelin (median inhibitory concentration > 100 ng/mL). This immunotoxin also caused complete regression of turners in nude mice that received xenografts of mesothelin-positive human carcinomas. These results show that immunotoxins directed against mesothelin are a therapeutic option that merits further investigation for the treatment of ovarian cancer and malignant mesotheliomas.