F G Hanisch

The epithelial mucin MUC1 is an important tumor marker of breast cancer and other carcinomas. Its immunodominant DTR motif, which is the principal target for immunotherapeutic approaches, has been assumed until recently not to be glycosylated in both normal and tumor MUC1 and to acquire its immunogenic conformation by virtue of a certain number of tandem repeats. We present evidence that the antigenicity of the single repeat toward a considerable number of antibodies to the DTR motif is greatly enhanced if it is glycosylated within this motif, and only in this position. Twenty-eight monoclonal anti-MUC1 antibodies with DTR specificity were tested for binding to synthetic 21-mer (AHG21) or 20-mer (HGV20) tandem repeat peptides O-glycosylated with galactose beta1-3N-acetylgalactosamine alpha or N-acetylgalactosamine alpha at defined Thr or Ser positions. Binding was measured in ELISA experiments using the glycopeptides as plate-immobilized antigens or as inhibitors in solution. At least 12 antibodies revealed significantly enhanced binding to the peptides glycosylated at the DTR motif (Thr-10) as compared to positional isomers glycosylated at Thr-5, Ser-6, Ser-16, or Thr-17 and to the nonglycosylated peptides. Six antibodies (VU-3-C6, A76-A/C7, Ma552, VU-11-D1, VU-12-E1, and VU-11-E2) that were unreactive with the monomeric repeat peptide did bind to the DTR-glycosylated peptide. Several lines of evidence suggest that glycosylation with N-acetylgalactosamine is sufficient for the observed enhancement effect. Our results are of special interest in conjunction with the recent observation that the DTR motif of lactation-associated MUC1 is O-glycosylated in vivo (Müller et al., J. Biol. Chem., 272: 24780-24793, 1997). They may have consequences for the design of efficient tumor vaccines.

mAb BW835 (IgG1) has been generated to breast cancer cell lines by alternating injections of MCF-7 or SW-613 cells and has been demonstrated to be of value in the serodiagnosis of mammary carcinoma. BW835 defines a carbohydrate epitope on integrated or secreted MUC1 glycoforms from carcinoma cells and human milk. To identify BW835-reactive glycopeptides on MUC1, proteolytic fragments of the mucin obtained by digestion with the Gly-C-specific endopeptidase IV from papaya corresponding to low molecular mass fragments (< 10 kilodaltons) of the tandem repeat domain were screened. A glycosylated fragment (glycopeptide 17) containing the mAb HMFG-2-defined epitope was highly reactive to BW835 antibody, while nonglycosylated tandem repeat peptide TAP25 or its in vitro-glycosylated N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) derivatives were unreactive. Glycopeptide 17 bound to peanut agglutinin and to a Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (TF alpha)-specific mAb (A78-G/A7). Binding of BW835 to glycopeptide 17 or to MUC1 was competitively inhibited by peanut agglutinin and by the synthetic glycopeptides TF alpha Ser or TF alpha Thr but not by their beta-anomers. Evidence for site specificity of binding by BW835 to glycopeptide 17 was revealed by demonstrating nonreactivity of the antibody to other TF alpha-expressing glycoproteins with peptide moieties lacking MUC1-specific motifs at putative glycosylation sites. The epitope of BW835 was localized to threonine within the VTSA-peptide motif by site-specific enzymatic beta-galactosylation of the synthetic tandem repeat peptide TAP25-GalNAc1 TAPPAHGVT(-O-alpha GalNAc)SAPDTRPAPGSTAPPA. This is the first report on a TF alpha-specific mAb that shows a strict peptide sequence dependency of binding.