New blocking antibodies impede adhesion, migration and survival of ovarian cancer cells, highlighting MFGE8 as a potential therapeutic target of human ovarian carcinoma.

Milk Fat Globule--EGF--factor VIII (MFGE8), also called lactadherin, is a secreted protein, which binds extracellularly to phosphatidylserine and to αvß3 and αvß5 integrins. On human and mouse cells expressing these integrins, such as endothelial cells, phagocytes and some tumors, MFGE8/lactadherin has been shown to promote survival, epithelial to mesenchymal transition and phagocytosis. A protumoral function of MFGE8 has consequently been documented for a few types of human cancers, including melanoma, a subtype of breast cancers, and bladder carcinoma. Inhibiting the functions of MFGE8 could thus represent a new type of therapy for human cancers. Here, we show by immunohistochemistry on a collection of human ovarian cancers that MFGE8 is overexpressed in 45% of these tumors, and we confirm that it is specifically overexpressed in the triple-negative subtype of human breast cancers. We have established new in vitro assays to measure the effect of MFGE8 on survival, adhesion and migration of human ovarian and triple-negative breast cancer cell lines. Using these assays, we could identify new MFGE8-specific monoclonal antibodies, which efficiently blocked these three tumor-promoting effects of MFGE8. Our results suggest future use of MFGE8-blocking antibodies as new anti-cancer therapeutics in subgroups of ovarian carcinoma, and triple-negative breast carcinoma patients.

Humanization by variable domain resurfacing and grafting on a human IgG4, using a new approach for determination of non-human like surface accessible framework residues based on homology modelling of variable domains.

Many antithrombotic agents have only a small therapeutic window, frequently leading to bleeding problems. However, interfering with platelet adhesion through the collagen-VWF-GPIbalpha axis is expected to cause less bleeding problems. Our group developed a monoclonal antibody, 82D6A3, directed against the von Willebrand factor (VWF) A3-domain, which inhibits the VWF-interaction to fibrillar collagen. 82D6A3 has antithrombotic effects in vivo without bleeding time prolongation. To further investigate the promising features of 82D6A3, we have humanized it by variable domain resurfacing and grafting on the constant regions of a human IgG4. First, the sequence of the variable domains was determined and the murine scFv was constructed. The expressed scFv had a comparable activity as the IgG of 82D6A3, and its DNA was thus used in subsequent humanization procedures. For this, a new approach was introduced to identify non-human like framework surface residues, since the general distribution of accessible residues described for human and murine heavy and light chain variable domains showed several discrepancies with the homology modelled Fv of 82D6A3. Identification of non-human like framework residues and evaluation of their surface accessibility within the context of the homology modelled Fv of 82D6A3, revealed 10 residues that need to be humanized without influencing the conformation of the CDR loops. Indeed, the humanized scFv of 82D6A3, obtained by mutating all 10 residues to their human counterpart, was still binding with high affinity to VWF and retained the inhibitory properties of the murine scFv. Next, in order to increase its half life and to decrease its immunogenicity, the humanized variable domains were grafted on the constant regions of a human IgG4, resulting in h82D6A3 with an in vitro activity comparable to that of the murine IgG.

Importance of N-terminal residues in plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 on its antibody induced latency transition.

The serpin plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is a well-known risk factor for thromboembolic and cardiovascular diseases. Many efforts have been made to reveal structure-function relationship in PAI-1, including the understanding of its unique latency transition. In this study, we describe the molecular characterization of PAI-1 neutralization by MA-159M12, a monoclonal antibody against rat PAI-1. Time-dependent inactivation of PAI-1, exposure of a trypsin cleavage site typically for the latent conformation and disappearance of elastase susceptibility revealed that MA-159M12 accelerated the active to latent, conformational transition (t1/2 120 +/- 12 min and 18 +/- 3.6 min in the absence and presence of MA-159M12, p < 0.0001). Cross-reactivity analysis of the antibody with various rat/human PAI-1 chimeras revealed that the epitope resides in alpha hA of rat PAI-1. Subsequent alanine-scanning mutagenesis and binding studies demonstrated that Pro2-Leu3-Pro4-Glu5 constitute the major residues of the epitope for MA-159M12. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that, even though unexpected based on current knowledge on PAI-1 stability and function, interference with alpha hA results in a destabilisation of its active, inhibitory conformation. Therefore, alpha hA forms a putative target for the rational development of PAI-1 neutralizing components.