title: Bioimmunotherapy for melanoma using fully human antibodies targeting MCAM/MUC18 and IL-8.
abstract: Metastatic melanoma is associated with high rate of patients' mortality and represents a great challenge for cancer therapies because of its notorious resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. Considerable efforts have been made over the last 2 decades in pursuit of new treatment modalities and identification of molecular events associated with melanoma progression and development of metastases. The acquisition of the metastatic phenotype is associated with overexpression of the adhesion molecule MCAM/MUC18 and the angiogenic factor IL-8. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge on MCAM/MUC18 and IL-8, their transcriptional regulation, and their role in melanoma growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. Further, we report on the development of new fully human antibodies, anti-MCAM/MUC18 (ABX-MA1) and anti-IL-8 (ABX-IL8), and their effects on tumor growth and metastasis in animal models. Collectively, our studies suggest that ABX-MA1 and ABX-IL8 could serve as new modalities for the treatment of melanoma either alone, or in combination with conventional chemotherapy or other antitumor agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Vladislava O
authors.initials: VO
authors.lastname: Melnikova
authors.forename: Menashe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bar-Eli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D051929:CD146 Antigen / Q000276:immunology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000276:immunology*; D008545:Melanoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D051929:CD146 Antigen; D016209:Interleukin-8; C497902:MCAM protein, human