Membrane topology of the L6 antigen and identification of the protein epitope recognized by the L6 monoclonal antibody.

The murine monoclonal antibody (mAb) L6 recognizes an integral membrane glycoprotein that is highly expressed on lung, breast, colon, and ovarian carcinomas and is referred to as the L6 antigen. This antigen is an attractive target for therapeutic intervention due to its high level expression on malignant cells. We have previously reported the isolation of a cDNA encoding the human L6 antigen (H-L6). Here, we report the isolation of a cDNA clone encoding the murine L6 antigen (M-L6). This cDNA contains one long open reading frame, which encodes a 220-amino acid polypeptide that is 78% homologous to H-L6. This protein contains short NH2- and COOH-terminal hydrophilic domains and four hydrophobic regions, each long enough to span the plasma membrane. Each of these hydrophobic domains is separated by a hydrophilic domain, the longest of which contains one possible N-linked glycosylation site and is located between the third and fourth hydrophobic domains. We have previously demonstrated that the murine L6 mAb recognizes a protein epitope expressed on human tumor-derived cell lines. Now, using chimeric cDNA constructs encoding human-murine L6 antigen hybrids in conjunction with monoclonal antibody binding experiments, we show that the 42-residue hydrophilic domain of the L6 antigen, located between the third and fourth hydrophobic domains, is outside the cell and that residues in the NH2-terminal region of this domain are critical for the binding of the murine L6 mAb to H-L6.