Cytotoxic effect of anti-idiotype antibody-chlorambucil conjugates against human lymphoblastoid cells.

The secreted IgMs of two human lymphoblastoid cell lines, RPMI-6410 and RPMI-8392, were purified. Antisera against these two IgMs were raised in rabbits and made idiotypically specific to the respective antigens through various absorption procedures. By immunofluorescence and radioimmunoassay techniques, the purified anti-idiotype antibodies were found to react also with the membrane Igs of the respective cell lines, but not with those of other cell lines. The purified anti-idiotype antibodies were then coupled with Chlorambucil to form antibody-drug conjugates, whose effectiveness in the in-vitro killing of target cells was evaluated by a chromium-release cytotoxicity assay. The results showed that these anti-idiotype antibody-Chlorambucil conjugates were specifically cytotoxic to lymphoblastoid cells that bore membrane Igs carrying the respective idiotypic determinant(s). Furthermore, the conjugates were far more effective in causing cytolysis to the target cells than either Chlorambucil or the anti-idiotype antibodies alone.