The long-range goal is to develop and market mouse antiidiotypic (anti-id) monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) which bear the internal image of the human high molecular weight-melanoma associated antigen (HMWMAA) for active specific immunotherapy in patients with melanoma. This research stems from investigations in BALB/c mice which have shown that conjugation to KLH and administration with an adjuvant markedly enhances the ability of the mouse anti-id MoAb MK2-23 to induce humoral and cellular immunity towards the HMW-MAA. The specific goal of this project is to determine the effect of conjugation with KLH and/or administration with BCG of mouse anti-id MoAb MK2-23 (which bears the internal image of HMW-MAA) on the induction of humoral anti HMW-MAA immunity in patients with melanoma and to correlate the development of anti-HMW-MAA immunity with the clinical course of the disease. The data obtained to date in mouse studies and limited clinical trials have demonstrated an association between anti HMW-MAA immunity and prolonged patient survival. These investigations are designed to optimize the immunization protocols with anti-id MoAb and to provide further evidence for the feasibility of this approach in the active specific immunotherapy of patients with melanoma.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:If, as previous clinical trials suggest, injection of melanoma patients with mouse anti-idiotypic monoclonal antibodies directed against antimelanoma antibodies can elicit a clinical response to the tumor, then these reagents would have great commercial value as vaccines for the specific active immunotherapy of melanoma.National Cancer Institute (NCI)
