Strong antitumor activities of IgG3 antibodies to a human melanoma-associated ganglioside.

Three mouse monoclonal IgG3 antibodies, 2B2, IF4, and MG-21, recognize a GD3 ganglioside antigen that is expressed at the cell surface of most human melanomas. All three antibodies mediate antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vitro when tested with human lymphocytes as effector cells in a 2-hr or 4-hr 51Cr-release test, and one antibody, MG-21, also gives strong complement-dependent cytotoxicity with human serum. Antibody 2B2, which gives ADCC also in the presence of mouse lymphocytes, inhibited the outgrowth of a human melanoma in nude mice, but antibody IF4, which showed no ADCC with mouse lymphocyte effectors, did not.