An Immune Based, Anti-CD138 Targeting Antibody for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma

CD138 (Syndecan-1), a member of integral membrane family of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGS), is highly expressed on differentiated plasma cells (PC) and is both a primary diagnostic biomarker of multiple myeloma (MM) as well as an indicator of poor clinical prognosis. This surface antigen is an attractive candidate for targeted immunotherapy for MM, given its constitutive expression during disease progression, including smoldering myeloma, a relatively early asymptomatic phase of disease that is potentially amenable to early treatment. We here investigated the targeted use of chimeric anti-CD138 monoclonal antibody (mAb) 1610 and confirm its in vitro anti-tumor potency based on an immune directed cellular cytotoxicity against a diverse panel of CD138 positive MM cell lines, both resistant or sensitive to conventional and current MM therapies and varying levels of CD138 expression as measured by cell immunostaining and quantitative RT-PCR. Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was evaluated using a calcein-AM based release assay in the presence of human natural killer (NK) effector cells purified from four different healthy donors. MAb 1610 lysed CD138-expressing MM cell lines in a dose dependent manner. This ADCC activity was mAb 1610 specific (in comparison to isotype control), CD138 target dependent, and mediated in the presence of human NK effector cells (co-cultured at an effector:target cell ratio of 20:1). MAb 1610 dependent-cytotoxicity was observed at concentrations as low as 0.01 µg/ml with maximal lysis occurring at approximately 1 µg/ml and extrapolated sub-nanomolar ED₅₀ potencies (Table 1) based on these data. All MM cell lines were subject to mAb 1610-mediated lysis, albeit with slightly different sensitivities that modestly correlated with their relative CD138 cell surface expression levels. This anti CD138 mAb-dependent cellular toxicity included MM1SR and H929R cell lines, both of which are resistant to lenalidomide. MAb 1610 induced specific cell lysis of JJN3 cells, but not of CD138 knock out JJN3 cells or CD138-negative B lymphocytes, further confirming that mAb 1610 specifically induced ADCC against-CD138 expressing MM cells in a target specific manner. Using an orthogonal cytometric based assay, the ability of mAb 1610, in a dose-dependent manner, to activate NK cells was also shown in the presence of CD138 target cells, as evidenced by increased expression of CD107 (a marker for NK cell degranulation) and cytokine production in NK cells. Importantly, the CD138 targeting cytotoxic activities of mAb 1610 translationally extend to MM cells autologously derived directly from MM patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory diseases. The concomitant use of autologously derived effector cells from these patients to mediate antibody dependent myeloma cell killing further suggests the relevance of anti-CD138 directed immune-based therapeutic strategy in humans. In further replication of human disease, we also co-cultured MM1.S or MM1.R cells with human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) which support myeloma cell growth by promoting an immunosuppressive microenvironment within the BM. Importantly, mAb 1610-dependent cytotoxicity against MM1.S or MM1.R cells was not attenuated by the co-presence of BMSCs. Similarly, IL-6 (10 ng/ml) did not significantly affect mAb 1610-induced ADCC activity, indicating a mechanism of action that can overcome growth promotion, immune suppression, and drug resistance conferred by the tumor promoting BM microenvironment. Taken together, these in vitro studies further demonstrate as a proof-of-concept the use of an antibody CD138 targeting strategy mediated through an immune based mechanism of myeloma plasma cell killing. Based on these results, optimization and further biological characterization of chimeric mAb 1610 in advance of pre-clinical studies is anticipated.

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