A-dmDT390-bisFv(National Institutes of Health)

Resimmune is a second-generation recombinant immunotoxin composed of the catalytic and translocation domains of diphtheria toxin fused to two single chain antibody fragments reactive with the extracellular domain of CD3ε. We gave intravenous infusions of Resimmune 2.5 - 11.25 μg/kg over 15 minutes to 30 patients (25 with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, 3 with peripheral T-cell lymphoma, 1 with T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia and 1 with T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia) in an inter-patient dose escalation trial. The most common adverse events were fever, chills, hypotension, edema, hypoalbuminemia, hypophosphatemia, and transaminasemia. Among the 25 patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, there were nine responses for a response rate of 36% (95% CI, 18%-57%) including four complete remissions (16%, 95% CI, 5%-36%). The durations of the complete remissions were 72+, 72+, 60+ and 38+ months. There were five partial remissions lasting 3, 3, 3+, 6+ and 14 months. Of 17 patients with a modified skin weighted assessment tool score <50, 17 patients with stage IB/IIB, and 11 patients with both a score <50 and stage IB/IIB, nine (53%), eight (47%), and eight (73%) had responses, respectively. Further studies of Resimmune in patients with low tumor burden, stage IB-IIB cutaneous T-cell lymphoma are warranted. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00611208.

Diphtheria toxin (DT)-based anti-CD3 immunotoxins have clinical relevance in numerous applications including autoimmune disease therapies and organ transplantation tolerance protocols. Pre-existing anti-DT antibodies acquired either by vaccination against diphtheria toxin or infections with C. diphtheriae may interfere or inhibit the function of these anti-CD3 immunotoxins. Previously, a full-length anti-rhesus monkey CD3 immunotoxin, FN18-CRM9, was shown to be less effective at depleting circulating T cells in animals with pre-existing anti-DT antibody titers than in animals without antibodies, and subsequent doses were ineffective. In this study, the T cell depletion function of a truncated DT based recombinant anti-monkey CD3 immunotoxin, A-dmDT390-scfbDb (C207), as part of a reduced intensity conditioning regimen prior to hematopoietic cell transplantation, was compared between two groups of monkeys: those with and without pre-existing anti-diphtheria titers. T cell depletion was comparable in both groups of monkeys, and therefore appeared to be unaffected by the presence of moderate levels of pre-existing anti-diphtheria antibodies.