A novel monoclonal antibody, KOR-SA3544 which reacts to Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells with high sensitivity

A monoclonal antibody which primarily reacted with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph¹)-positive ALL cells was produced. The reactivity of a monoclonal antibody, KOR-SA3544 (IgG2a) was evaluated on normal hemopoietic cells, 68 leukemic cell lines and freshly obtained cells from 190 patients with leukemia and lymphoma. In cultured cells, KOR-SA3544 reacted with Ph¹-positive ALL cell lines (5/5) and leukemic cell lines with 11q23 translocation (3/11). In lymphoid cells, KOR-SA3544 was reactive with all of Ph¹-positive ALL (26/26), a part of common ALL (5/38) and one case of early B precursor leukemia with 11q23 translocation, but not with peripheral lymphocytes. Normal mature granulocytes were also strongly stained. In myeloid leukemias, KOR-SA3544 was positive (16/56) only in patients with acute myeloid leukemia with FAB-M2 and overt leukemia following myelodysplastic syndrome, but neither with other types of myeloid leukemias nor with blast crisis in chronic myelogenous leukemia. KOR-SA3544 recognized a 90 KDa protein on the membrane of a leukemic cell line, KOPN-57bi. In normal bone marrow, CD19⁺/KOR-SA3544⁺ cells were not identified, while Ph¹-positive ALL cells were strongly positive for both antibodies. KOR-SA3544 is useful not only for making the diagnosis of Ph¹-positive ALL but for detection of the minimal residual disease during remission.