AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, December 30, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer

"Rituximab (Mabthera) and alemtuzumab (Campath, Mabcampath) are non-conjugated IgG1 therapeutic monoclonal antibodies directed against the CD20 and CD52 surface antigens respectively," explained Josee Golay and colleagues at the Mario Negri Pharmacological Research Institute in Milan and Amedeo Avogadro University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara.

AIDS-NHL tumor cells expressing CD20 were powerfully lysed by rituximab in vitro, Golay and coauthors found.

The researchers evaluated rituximab and alemtuzumab activity against cultured AIDS-NHL cells expressing their target antigen. They compared these agent's capacity for inducing complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), according to the report.

Rituximab triggered up to 98% specific lysis of CD20+ tumor cells through CDC, study data showed. In addition, ADCC activated by rituximab produced 20% specific lysis of malignant CD20+ cells.

Although alemtuzumab ADCC-based CD52+ tumor cell lysis of up to 30%, this agent was a weak activator of CDC (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-associated lymphomas are efficiently lysed through complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by rituximab. Br J Haematol 2002 Dec;119(4):923-929.

"Altogether, these data offer a first in vitro rationale supporting the therapeutic use of rituximab for CD20-positive AIDS-NHL," Golay and colleagues concluded.

The corresponding author for this report is Martino Introna, Laboratory of Molecular Immunohaematology, Istituto Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, via Eritrea 52, 20157 Milano, Italy. E-mail: martino@marionegri.it.

Key points reported in this study include:

• The anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab is likely to be effective against AIDS-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma (AIDS-NHL)

• Rituximab elicited potent complement-dependent cytotoxicity against CD20+ tumor cells in vitro

• Significant antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was also seen in rituximab-treated cultures

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

Reference:

Golay J, Gramigna R, Facchinetti V, et al., "Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-associated lymphomas are efficiently lysed through complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by rituximab", Br J Haematol 2002 Dec;119(4):923-929

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