The identification of optimal target
antigens on
tumor cells is central to the advancement of new antibody-based
cancer therapies. We performed suppression subtractive hybridization and identified nectin-4 (PVRL4), a type I transmembrane
protein and member of a family of related
immunoglobulin-like adhesion molecules, as a potential target in epithelial
cancers. We conducted immunohistochemical analysis of 2,394 patient specimens from bladder, breast, lung, pancreatic, ovarian, head/neck, and esophageal
tumors and found that 69% of all specimens stained positive for nectin-4. Moderate to strong staining was especially observed in 60% of bladder and 53% of
breast tumor specimens, whereas the expression of nectin-4 in normal tissue was more limited. We generated a novel
antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)
enfortumab vedotin comprising the human anti-nectin-4 antibody conjugated to the highly potent microtubule-disrupting agent MMAE. Hybridoma (AGS-22M6E) and CHO (ASG-22CE) versions of
enfortumab vedotin (also known as ASG-22ME) ADC were able to bind to cell surface-expressed nectin-4 with high affinity and induced cell death in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment of mouse xenograft models of human breast, bladder, pancreatic, and
lung cancers with
enfortumab vedotin significantly inhibited the growth of all four
tumor types and resulted in
tumor regression of breast and bladder xenografts. Overall, these findings validate nectin-4 as an attractive therapeutic target in multiple solid
tumors and support further clinical development, investigation, and application of nectin-4-targeting ADCs.
Cancer Res; 76(10); 3003-13. ©2016 AACR.