Workshop on monoclonal antibodies to human melanoma-associated antigens: findings of the Seattle group.

The 30 workshop monoclonal antibodies identify a number of distinct cell surface antigens of human melanoma. Indirect 125I-protein A binding assays showed that virtually all of the antibodies recognized antigens at the surface of SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells. Immunoprecipitation from detergent lysates of surface-radioiodinated cells showed that 16 of the antibodies recognized cell surface proteins. Antibodies 96.5, 118.1, 133.2 and two antibodies from the Sloan-Kettering group, I12 and L10, recognized a 97,000 MW protein, p97, but none of the other antibodies did so. Many of the antigens appear to have sufficient specificity for melanoma to be of interest as potential diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets and to merit structural and functional studies.