Antiviral and antiproliferative effects of interferons delivered via monoclonal antibodies.

We present in vitro experiments demonstrating the feasibility of specifically targeting IFNs by coupling to monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Human interferon alpha (HuIFN-alpha), both natural and recombinant, were coupled to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) membrane antigen (MA) specific MAbs and shown to retain full antiviral and antiproliferative activities when tested on several human cell lines. A series of in vitro pulsing experiments demonstrated that a minimum amount of MAb-delivered IFN exerts pronounced antiviral and antiproliferative effects on human QIMR-WIL target cells which carry EBV (viral) membrane antigens (EBV-MA+) and not on U-266 or Hep2 cell lines (EBV-MA-). Additionally the antiproliferative action of MAb-coupled rIFN-alpha appeared to be enhanced compared with that of uncoupled.