The National Cancer Institute (NCI) seeks research co-development partners and/or licensees to develop a collection of anti-CE1 antibodies for liver cancer treatment.
Liver cancer is the sixth most common and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The most common liver cancer in adults is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), an aggressive malignancy with an increasing global incidence and mortality rate. The current methods for early detection, surveillance, and treatment are suboptimal. This is due to complex etiologies, demonstrating a need for more effective treatments.
Previously, NIH investigators identified a novel viral peptide antigen known as CE1. CE1 belongs to the rhinovirus and enterovirus families (NIH Ref: E-023-2024) producing a dominant humoral response associated with reduced incidence and mortality of HCC. Through phage display from a human single-chain fragment variable (scFv) phage library, NCI inventors isolated two human antibodies (B9 and B10) against the viral peptide, CE1. Human anti-CE1 B9 and B10 antibodies were constructed. These antibodies showed specific binding to liver cancer cell lines and clinical tumor tissues. They inhibited HCC tumor growth via inducting NK cell-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. These anti-CE1 antibodies have the potential as liver cancer therapeutics, either on their own or as the targeting domain of an immunoconjugate.