subject: Spontaneous Humoral Immune Response to Mesothelin in Humans [print this page] Spontaneous Humoral Immune Response to Mesothelin in Humans
One interesting study is called, "Humoral Immune Response to Mesothelin in Mesothelioma and Ovarian Cancer Patients" by Mitchell Ho, Raffit Hassan, Jingli Zhang, Qing-cheng Wang, Masanori Onda, Tapan Bera and Ira Pastan - Clinical Cancer Research May 2005 Here is an excerpt: "Abstract - Purpose: Mesothelin is a glycosyl-phosphatidylinositolanchored glycoprotein present on the cell surface. Mesothelin is a differentiation antigen that is highly expressed on mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer. The existence of a spontaneous humoral immune response to mesothelin in humans has not been fully studied. Here we addressed the issue of whether mesothelin elicits a humoral immune response in patients with mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
Experimental Design: Using an ELISA, we analyzed immunoglobulin G antibodies specific for mesothelin in sera from patients with mesothelioma and epithelial ovarian cancer. Tumor specimens were examined by immunohistochemistry for mesothelin protein expression.
Results: Elevated levels of mesothelin-specific antibodies were detected in the sera of 39.1% of patients with mesothelioma (27 of 69 patients) and 41.7% with epithelial ovarian cancer (10 of 24 patients) when compared with a normal control population (44 blood donors; P < 0.01 for both mesothelioma and ovarian cancer). We also found that 53% to 56% of patients with mesothelin immunostaining-positive mesothelioma and ovarian cancer had antibodies specific for mesothelin, whereas only 0% to 8% of patients with negative mesothelin immunostaining had detectable mesothelin-specific antibodies (2 test: P < 0.01 for mesothelioma and P = 0.025 for ovarian cancer).
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that mesothelin is a new tumor antigen in patients with mesothelioma and ovarian cancer and the immunogenicity of mesothelin is associated with its high expression on the tumor cells. Mesothelin represents an excellent target for immune-based therapies."
Another interesting study is called, "Low Incidence of Point Mutations in H-, K- and N-ras Oncogenes and p53 Tumor Suppressor Gene in Renal Cell Carcinoma and Peritoneal Mesothelioma of Wistar Rats Induced by Ferric Nitrilotriacetate" by Yasuyuki Nishiyama, Hirofumi Suwa, Keisei Okamoto, Manabu Fukumoto, Hiroshi Hiai, Shinya Toyokuni - Cancer Science Volume 86, Issue 12, pages 11501158, December 1995. Here is an excerpt: "An iron chelate, ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA), induces renal proximal tubular damage, a consequence of iron-catalyzed free radical reactions, that finally leads to a high incidence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in rodents. Previous studies have identified, within 24 h after administration of Fe-NTA, lipid peroxidation products, aldehyde-modified proteins and a variety of modified DNA bases such as 8-hydroxyguanine that may be mutagenic in vivo. In the present study, pathological features of the RCCs were studied, and, in an effort to correlate them with carcinogen-specific molecular events in Fe-NTA-induced carcinogenesis, the H-, K- and N-ras oncogenes and the p53 tumor suppressor gene were investigated for the presence of mutations. Fe-NTA-induced RCCs showed similarity to human RCCs in that they are often invasive, metastatic and fatal. None (0 of 12) of the tumors had mutation in codons 12, 13 and 61 of the H-, K- and N-ras genes by direct sequencing. Only one (1 of 12) tumor with high grade histology revealed a CGC-to-CTC (Arg to Leu) transversion in codon 246 of the p53 gene by the use of single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and direct sequencing. High expression of mutant p53 protein was confirmed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Study of three peritoneal mesotheliomas induced by Fe-NTA revealed no mutation in ras and p53 genes. These results suggest that the ras and p53 genes are not the major targets of mutation in Fe-NTA-induced carcinogenesis of kidney and mesothelium. Instead, p53 mutation may work for potentiation of malignant character in Fe-NTA-induced renal carcinogenesis."
Another interesting study is called, "Virchows Archiv B Cell Pathology Zell-pathologie" - Volume 52, Number 1, 55-65 Simultaneous immunoenzyme staining of vimentin and cytokeratins with monoclonal antibodies as an aid in the differential diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma from pulmonary adenocarcinoma by H. Mullink, S. C. Henzen-Logmans, J. J. M. Alons-van Kordelaar, T. M. Tadema and C. J. L. M. Meijer. Here is an excerpt: "Abstract - The occurrence and coexpression of the cytoskeletal proteins vimentin and cytokeratins were studied in malignant mesotheliomas and pulmonary carcinomas. For this purpose a double immunoenzyme staining with monoclonal antibodies was developed which made it possible to visualize vimentin and cytokeratins simultaneously within the same cell. A clear distinction between stromal cells (vimentin only) and tumour cells was also obtained.
A total of 12 mesotheliomas (six mixed type and six epithelioid type) and 13 carcinomas (eight adenocarcinomas and five large cell undifferentiated carcinomas) were studied.
The results revealed a clear difference between mesotheliomas and adenocarcinomas: 11 of 12 mesotheliomas showed coexpression of vimentin and cytokeratins in at least 50% of the tumour cells, while in seven of the eight adenocarcinomas none or only a few cells could be seen with this coexpression. In the undifferentiated large cell carcinomas three of five expressed both components, but in less than 25% of the cells. It is concluded that a reliable double immunoenzyme staining of vimentin and cytokeratins can be used as an additional means to distinguish malignant mesothelioma from pulmonary denocarcinoma."
