Relative cytotoxic activity of immunotoxins reactive with different epitopes on the extracellular domain of the c‐erbB‐2 (HER‐2/neu) gene product p185

Different epitopes on the extracellular domain of the HER‐2 receptor can serve as distinct targets for immunotoxins. To determine the optimal epitope target for immunotoxin therapy, 7 anti‐HER‐2 ricin A chain murine monoclonal immunotoxins, each reactive with different epitopes of HER‐2 receptor, were tested for cytotoxic activity. The immunotoxins produced 1.2–4.6 logs of cytotoxicity in limiting dilution clonogenic assays with 2 breast cancer cell lines that overexpressed HER‐2. Cytotoxicity did not correlate with immunoglobulin isotype, binding affinity, relative position of epitopes or internalization of the anti‐HER‐2 immunotoxins. Interestingly, the most and least effective immunotoxins bound to epitopes in very close proximity. Competitive binding assays with unconjugated antibodies have previously indicated that our antibodies recognized epitopes that are arranged in a linear array. To orient this relative epitope map, deletions were prepared in the HER‐2/neu gene and these mutant constructs were expressed in NIH3T3 cells. Epitope expression was determined by antibody binding and radioimmunoassay. Epitopes targeted by the PB3, 454C11 and NB3 antibodies are localized N‐terminal to the epitopes recognized by ID5, BD5, 741F8 and 520C9 antibodies. The 2 non‐conformational epitopes PB3 and NB3 were localized to regions corresponding to amino acides 78–242 of the p185HER‐2 protein. Int. J. Cancer 82:525–531, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.