On-target restoration of a split T cell-engaging antibody for precision immunotherapy

T cell-engaging immunotherapies are changing the landscape of current cancer care. However, suitable target antigens are scarce, restricting these strategies to very few tumor types. Here, we report on a T cell-engaging antibody derivative that comes in two complementary halves and addresses antigen combinations instead of single molecules. Each half, now coined hemibody, contains an antigen-specific single-chain variable fragment (scFv) fused to either the variable light (V-L) or variable heavy (V-H) chain domain of an anti-CD3 antibody. When the two hemibodies simultaneously bind their respective antigens on a single cell, they align and reconstitute the original CD3-binding site to engage T cells. Employing preclinical models for aggressive leukemia and breast cancer, we show that by the combinatorial nature of this approach, T lymphocytes exclusively eliminate dual antigen-positive cells while sparing single positive bystanders. This allows for precision targeting of cancers not amenable to current immunotherapies

Exchange Reactions between Alkanethiolates and Alkaneselenols on Au{111}

When alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers on Au{111} are exchanged with alkaneselenols from solution, replacement of thiolates by selenols is rapid and complete, and is well described by perimeter-dependent island growth kinetics. The monolayer structures change as selenolate coverage increases, from being epitaxial and consistent with the initial thiolate structure to being characteristic of selenolate monolayer structures. At room temperature and at positive sample bias in scanning tunneling microscopy, the selenolate-gold attachment is labile, and molecules exchange positions with neighboring thiolates. The scanning tunneling microscope probe can be used to induce these place-exchange reactions

Variant signaling topology at the cancer cell–T-cell interface induced by a two-component T-cell engager

No abstract available

Absence of SKP2 expression attenuates BCR-ABL–induced myeloproliferative disease

BCR-ABL is proposed to impair cell-cycle control by disabling p27, a tumor suppressor that inhibits cyclin-dependent kinases. We show that in cell lines p27 expression is inversely correlated with expression of SKP2, the F-box protein of SCFSKP2 (SKP1/Cul1/F-box), the E3 ubiquitin ligase that promotes proteasomal degradation of p27. Inhibition of BCR-ABL kinase causes G1 arrest, down-regulation of SKP2, and accumulation of p27. Ectopic expression of wild-type SKP2, but not a mutant unable to recognize p27, partially rescues cell-cycle progression. A similar regulation pattern is seen in cell lines transformed by FLT3-ITD, JAK2V617F, and TEL-PDGFRβ, suggesting that the SKP2/p27 conduit may be a universal target for leukemogenic tyrosine kinases. Mice that received transplants of BCR-ABL–infected SKP2−/− marrow developed a myeloproliferative syndrome but survival was significantly prolonged compared with recipients of BCR-ABL-expressing SKP2+/+ marrow. SKP2−/− leukemic cells demonstrated higher levels of nuclear p27 than SKP2+/+ counterparts, suggesting that the attenuation of leukemogenesis depends on increased p27 expression. Our data identify SKP2 as a crucial mediator of BCR-ABL–induced leukemogenesis and provide the first in vivo evidence that SKP2 promotes oncogenesis. Hence, stabilization of p27 by inhibiting its recognition by SCFSKP2 may be therapeutically useful