Recombinant anti-erbB2 immunotoxins containing Pseudomonas exotoxin.

Immunotoxins were made using five different murine monoclonal antibodies to the human erbB2 gene product and LysPE40, a 40-kDa recombinant form of Pseudomonas exotoxin (PE) lacking its cell-binding domain. All five conjugates were specifically cytotoxic to cancer cell lines overexpressing erbB2 protein. The most active conjugate was e23-LysPE40, generated by chemical crosslinking of anti-erbB2 monoclonal antibody e23 to LysPE40. In addition, a recombinant immunotoxin, e23(Fv)PE40, was constructed that consists of the light-chain variable domain of e23 connected through a peptide linker to its heavy-chain variable domain, which in turn is fused to PE40. The recombinant protein was made in Escherichia coli, purified to near homogeneity, and shown to selectively kill cells expressing the erbB2 protooncogene. To improve the cytotoxic activity of e23(Fv)PE40, PE40 was replaced with a variant, PE38KDEL, in which the carboxyl end of PE is changed from Arg-Glu-Asp-Leu-Lys to Lys-Asp-Glu-Leu and amino acids 365-380 of PE are deleted. The e23(Fv)PE38KDEL protein inhibits the growth of tumors formed by the human gastric cancer cell line N87 in immunodeficient mice.