Abstract
Trop-2 proteolytic processing in cancer cells exposes epitopes that were specifically targeted by the 2G10 antibody. We sought additional recognition of Trop-2 within difficult-to-reach, densely packed tumor sites. Trop-2 deletion mutants were employed in immunization and screening procedures, and these led to the recognition of a novel epitope in the N-terminal region of Trop-2, by the 2EF antibody. The 2EF mAb was shown to bind Trop-2 at cell-cell junctions in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, and in deeply seated sites in prostate cancer, that were inaccessible to benchmark anti-Trop-2 antibodies. The 2EF antibody was shown to inhibit the growth of HT29 colon tumor cells in vitro, with the highest activity at high cell density. In vivo, 2EF showed anticancer activity against SKOv3 ovarian, Colo205, HT29, HCT116 colon and DU-145 prostate tumors, with the highest impact on densely packed tumor sites, whereby 2EF outcompeted benchmark anti-Trop-2 antibodies. Given the different recognition modes of Trop-2 by 2EF and 2G10, we hypothesized the effective interaction of the two mAb in vivo. The 2EF mAb was indeed demonstrated to enhance the activity of 2G10 against tumor xenotransplants, opening novel avenues for Trop-2-targeted therapy. We humanized 2EF by state-of-the-art CDR grafting/re-modeling, yielding the Hu2EF for therapy of Trop-2-expressing tumors in patients.