Antiviral and Antiproliferative Effects of Interferons Delivered via Monoclonal Antibodies

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Abstract
We present in vitro experiments demonstrating the feasibility of specifically targeting IFNs by coupling to monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Human interferon alpha (HuIFN-alpha), both natural and recombinant, were coupled to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) membrane antigen (MA) specific MAbs and shown to retain full antiviral and antiproliferative activities when tested on several human cell lines. A series of in vitro pulsing experiments demonstrated that a minimum amount of MAb-delivered IFN exerts pronounced antiviral and antiproliferative effects on human QIMR-WIL target cells which carry EBV (viral) membrane antigens (EBV-MA+) and not on U-266 or Hep2 cell lines (EBV-MA-). Additionally the antiproliferative action of MAb-coupled rIFN-alpha appeared to be enhanced compared with that of uncoupled.