[Cytotoxic effect of anticancer drug combined with anti-AFP antibody on human hepatoma cell in vitro].

The cytotoxic effect of the anticancer drug, Daunorubicin, combined with the anti human AFP horse antibody (Conjugate) on AFP-producing cells and non producing cells was studied in vitro. No different cytotoxic effects between the conjugate and the anticancer drug alone were observed on non-AFP-producing cells. On the other hand, the conjugate had a much stronger cytotoxic effect than the anticancer drug alone against AFP-producing cells when it was incubated for 24 hours, 5 x 10(-1) micrograms/ml as an anticancer concentration. The cytotoxicity of the conjugate is much stronger than of the comcrued effect of the anticancer drug and the anti AFP antibody (individually). The amount of AFP antibody used was very small. Therefore, the effect of the anticancer drug plus the small amount of AFP antibody was almost the same as the effect of anticancer drug alone. Under these conditions melting of nuclear material (cell death) was remarkable morphologically, and the intracellular anticancer concentration of the conjugate was seven times higher than that of the anticancer drug alone (p less than 0.05). In conclusion, the conjugate has more cytotoxic effect than the anticancer drug alone against AFP-producing hepatoma cells in optimal conditions.