MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES DIRECTED AGAINST HUMAN TUMOR-ASSOCIATED ANTIGENS CROSS-REACT WITH DROSOPHILA PROTEINS IN CLUSTERS

We reacted the Third International IASLC Workshop panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed against human lung-tumor-associated epitope s with nitrocellulose blots of total proteins from adult fruit flies. Out of 63 MAbs tested, 9 showed a significant reaction with Drosophila proteins. Interestingly, in a double-blind analysis, most of the posi tive reactions fell into clusters that parallel the antibody reactivit ies against human tissues. In light of our findings, it becomes possib le to screen expression vector libraries in order to isolate Drosophil a cDNA that may have homology with human tumor-associated antigens. (C ) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.