Effect of the antibody immunotherapy by the anti-MUC1 monoclonal antibody to the oral squamous cell carcinoma in vitro.

To conserve both form and function in the oral area, effective and selective drugs against oral cancer will be required. We focused on MUC1, a transmembrane glycoprotein, that is considered tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) for cancer therapy. Recently, studies were done to evaluate the patterns of MUC1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and it was found that higher MUC1 expression correlates with tumor invasion and metastasis. Using oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, we demonstrate here that tumor-specific targeting of MUC1 with the specific monoclonal antibody C595 has functional consequences with regard to complement deposition on MUC1-expressing oral cancer cell lines. Anti-MUC1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) also induced complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) to OSCC cells, and these effects were strongly correlated with MUC1 expression. Thus, these results indicate that anti-MUC1 mAb could provide a useful tool against OSCCs, and may provide insight into the development of low side-effect targeting therapy for this malignant disease.