Anti-mucin monoclonal antibodies

Mucins are of major interest in cell biology, not only are they highly over -expressed in many adenocarcinomas (up to 40-fold increase), but also have important physiological function, and probably more to be determined (1-3). There is much information available on mucins-doubtless because of their u nusual structure being heavily glycosylated, but also containing a repeat r egion rich in the amino acids serine, threonine and proline. This repeat re gion confers high immunogenicity of the mucins, and as a result, many antib odies (Abs) have been made to mucins of different species (4). Furthermore, the production of Abs led to the cloning of the cDNAs and armed with these reagents (antibodies, cDNA and genomic structures), advances in the knowle dge of the structure and function of mucins has been rapid, together with t he development of transgenic and gene knockout animals for biological studi es (1-9). Here we describe monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) made to the differe nt mucins, including Mucins 1-4, concentrating on human Mucin 1 (MUC1), to variants of MUC1, to regions outside the VNTR of MUC1, mouse Mucin1 (muc1), unusual features and cross reactions of anti-MUC1 Mabs and Abs made by pat ients in clinical trials. We will especially describe the Mabs produced in our laboratory.