PROSTATE-SPECIFIC MEMBRANE ANTIGEN

BACKGROUND. In an effort to discover new prostate-specific antigens (P SAs) to enhance our understanding of the functions and behavior of the prostate and the complex processes involved in prostate tumor progres sion, the structure and function of the PSM antigen has been elucidate d. METHODS. The PSM antigen was recognized using the 7E11-C5.3 monoclo nal antibody, generated against the LNCaP human prostate adenocarcinom a cell line. The PSM cDNA was isolated by PCR, using tryptic peptides of immunoprecipitated PSM to design degenerate primers. RESULTS. The p rostate specific membrane antigen (PSM) is a 100KD glycoprotein which appears to be a type II integral membrane protein. The protein and cDN A have been extensively characterized and the findings reviewed in the report. CONCLUSIONS. PSM, a new prostate antigen is valuable as a mar ker for hematogenous micro-metastatic tumor dissemination as detected in RT-PCR assays of peripheral blood. PSM has many properties that may be potentially useful as a molecular target in monoclonal antibody di rected strategies of tumor imaging and therapy. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, I nc.