Serodiagnosis of cancer, using porcine antigens recognized by human monoclonal antibody, HB4C5.

Antigens, recognized by human monoclonal antibody (HB4C5) generated from a lung cancer patient, were found to occur in porcine pancreas. The antigens-I and -II were purified from crude trypsin of porcine pancreas, only by Mono Q column chromatography, and were eluted at 260 and 300 mM NaCl in 10 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.4, respectively. These antigens differed from trypsin in molecular weight, elution pattern from the Mono Q column, and their reactivity with HB4C5. The molecular weights of the two antigens were almost the same at around 35000. These were used for serodiagnosis with an assay system based on 96-well immunoplates. The reactivities of antigens-I and -II with various sera were similar. When the reactivity of IgG in serum with antigen-II was measured, absorbance at 415 nm in the case of normal and lung cancer patients was 0.178 +/- 0.056 and 0.492 +/- 0.136 (p less than 0.005). The rates of positive reaction in ovary, larynx, uterus, lung and liver cancers were more than 50%, but the rates in stomach and breast cancers were less than 30%. Positive reaction was hardly detected in pancreas cancer and normal controls.