Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 5, 1900-1911, Copyright © 1987 by American Society of Clinical Oncology
Elimination of clonogenic malignant human T cells using monoclonal antibodies in combination with 2'-deoxycoformycin
CL Schwartz, CP Minniti, P Harwood, S Na, ML Banquerigo, LC Strauss, J Kurtzberg, SD Smith and CI Civin
Division of Pediatric Oncology, Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.
2'Deoxycoformycin (dCF) specifically inhibits adenosine deaminase (ADA) and
causes selective cytotoxicity of normal and malignant T cells. In clinical
trials, dCF caused rapid lysis of malignant T lymphoblasts. Although dCF
has been associated with dose-limiting nonhematopoietic toxicities,
myelosuppression has not been observed. Since dCF is relatively nontoxic to
hematopoietic stem cells, we tested dCF for utility in the ex vivo purging
of malignant T lymphoblasts from remission leukemic bone marrow for
autologous bone marrow transplantation. We found that T lymphoblast cell
lines were sensitive to dCF (plus deoxyadenosine [dAdo]) under conditions
that did not ablate human hematopoietic colony-forming cells. Moreover,
combined pharmacologic (dCF plus dAdo) and immunologic (anti-T cell
monoclonal antibodies [McAb] plus complement) purging resulted in additive
reduction in clonogenic T lymphoblasts. These results provide the basis for
a clinical trial of bone marrow transplantation using combined
pharmacologic/immunologic purging of T lymphoblasts from patients'
harvested autologous marrow.