Our group has extensive experience in the immunotoxin field: production, characterization in vitro and in vivo and conducting clinical Phase I trials. Immunotoxins are targeted therapeutics consisting of an antibody domain for binding target cancer cells and a toxin domain that triggers cancer cell death (Figure 1). Immunotoxins exhibit rapid cytotoxicity, distinct mechanisms of action, ability to kill cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, and exert tumor cell selectivity.

The last few years we have evaluated the use of an EpCAM-targeted immunotoxin MOC31PE for peritoneal surface malignancy as an attractive candidate for local therapy in the peritoneal cavity. We hope that the clinical use of immunotoxins will result in an efficacious and less toxic treatment for cancer patients for whom conventional treatment is no longer effective.

Ongoing projects:

• Perform a clinical Phase I/II trial with immunotoxin MOC31PE intraperitoneally administered in patients with peritoneal surface malignancy from colorectal cancer.
• Continue to examine suitable combination therapies with immunotoxin for the treatment of peritoneal surface malignancy from ovarian cancer.
• Establish an optimized production line for immunotoxin, with the goal of producing a new clinical batch for further clinical use.

Figure 1: Illustration of the MOC31PE immunotoxin, its internalization and mode of action. MOC31PE is composed of the MOC31 monoclonal antibody targeting the tumor-associated antigen EpCAM, covalently linked to Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE). The antibody directs the MOC31PE to EpCAM-expressing cancer cells, and when internalized, the toxin effector moiety rapidly triggers cell death by catalytic inactivation of vital processes, and by directly inducing apoptosis.

Contact information

Yvonne Andersson