Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Action of novel CD37 antibodies on chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells

Leukemia volume 26, pages 546–549 (2012)Cite this article

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) represents the most prevalent adult leukemia and is characterized by the accumulation of long-lived B lymphocytes. Despite significant advances in its therapy especially during the last two decades, the disease still remains incurable and new treatment options need to be developed. Among targeted approaches, immunotherapy comprises Fc-mediated mechanisms that are independent of the mechanisms exploited by chemotherapy or modulation of signal transduction by small molecule drugs.

Currently the CD20 and CD52 antibodies, rituximab and alemtuzumab are clinically used for treating CLL in combination with chemotherapy. The addition of rituximab to a fludarabine/cyclophosphamide chemotherapy regimen led to a longer overall survival of the chemoimmunotherapy-treated patients defining the current treatment standard.1 Although the efficiency of rituximab is limited by relatively low and variable expression of CD20 on CLL cells and poor response in the patient subgroup with chromosome 17p deletion, alemtuzumab additionally depletes T lymphocytes, which leads to an increased risk of infection. Therefore novel monoclonal antibodies directed to CD20 and additional antigens are being developed for immunotherapy of CLL.2

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

References

  1. Hallek M, Fischer K, Fingerle-Rowson G, Fink AM, Busch R, Mayer J et al. Addition of rituximab to fludarabine and cyclophosphamide in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet 2010; 376: 1164–1174.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Jaglowski SM, Alinari L, Lapalombella R, Muthusamy N, Byrd JC . The clinical application of monoclonal antibodies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood 2010; 116: 3705–3714.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Zhao X, Lapalombella R, Joshi T, Cheney C, Gowda A, Hayden-Ledbetter MS et al. Targeting CD37-positive lymphoid malignancies with a novel engineered small modular immunopharmaceutical. Blood 2007; 110: 2569–2577.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Furman RR, Andritsos L, Flinn IW, Forero-Torres A, Foon KA, Pagel JM et al. Phase 1 Dose escalation study of TRU-016, an anti-CD37 SMIPTM protein in relapsed and refractory CLL. Blood 2010; 116: 56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Heider K-H, Kiefer K, Ostermann E, Lamche E, Küpcü Z, Jacobi A et al. Novel Fc-engineered antibodies to 37 with pro-apoptotic and enhanced ADCC activity. Blood 2010; 116: 3916.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Patz M, Isaeva P, Forcob N, Muller B, Frenzel LP, Wendtner CM et al. Comparison of the in vitro effects of the anti-CD20 antibodies rituximab and GA101 on chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cells. Br J Haematol 2011; 152: 295–306.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Stanglmaier M, Reis S, Hallek M . Rituximab and alemtuzumab induce a nonclassic, caspase-independent apoptotic pathway in B-lymphoid cell lines and in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. Ann Hematol 2004; 83: 634–645.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Voso MT, Pantel G, Rutella S, Weis M, D’Alo F, Urbano R et al. Rituximab reduces the number of peripheral blood B-cells in vitro mainly by effector cell-mediated mechanisms. Haematologica 2002; 87: 918–925.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. van Spriel AB, Puls KL, Sofi M, Pouniotis D, Hochrein H, Orinska Z et al. A regulatory role for CD37 in T-cell proliferation. J Immunol 2004; 172: 2953–2961.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by research funding from BI to G.K. and M.H. This work is part of projects in our laboratory that are supported by grant DKH 109 214 of the German Cancer Aid to G.K. and M.H., by the German Research Council (DFG), SFB832, and by a Research Alliance grant from the CLL Global Research Foundation to M.H.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department I of Internal Medicine, University of Cologne, Center of Integrated Oncology Köln Bonn, Cologne, Germany

    G Krause, M Patz, P Isaeva, M Wigger, I Baki, V Vondey, S Kerwien, M Kuckertz, R Brinker, J Claasen, L P Frenzel, C-M Wendtner & M Hallek

  2. Cologne Cluster of Excellence on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-associated Diseases (CECAD Cologne), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    C-M Wendtner & M Hallek

  3. Boehringer Ingelheim RCV GmbH & Co KG, Vienna, Austria

    K-H Heider

Authors
  1. G Krause
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M Patz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. P Isaeva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M Wigger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. I Baki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. V Vondey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. S Kerwien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. M Kuckertz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. R Brinker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. J Claasen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. L P Frenzel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. C-M Wendtner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. K-H Heider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. M Hallek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G Krause.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

K.-H.H. is employed by Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), the company that developed the CD37 antibodies under investigation. G.K. and M.H. received research funding from BI. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Leukemia website

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Krause, G., Patz, M., Isaeva, P. et al. Action of novel CD37 antibodies on chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. Leukemia 26, 546–549 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.233

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.233

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links