Abstract: The carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA) is an oncofetal glycoprotein known as an important clinical tumor marker and is overexpressed in several types of tumors, including colorectal and lung carcinomas. We constructed a chimeric protein that exhibits both specific binding and immune stimulating activities, by fusing staphylococcal  enterotoxin A(SEA) to the C-terminus of an anti-CEA single-chain disulfide-stabilized Fv(scdsFv) antibody     (single-chain-C-terminus/SEA, SC-C/SEA). The SC-C/SEA protein was expressed in Escherichia coli(E. coli), refolded, and purified on an immobilized Ni2+ affinity chromatography column. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis(SDS-PAGE) and  Western blot analysis reveal that the target protein was expressed sufficiently. We used immunofluorescence assays to demonstrate that SC-C/SEA could bind specifically to human lung carcinoma cells(A549), but almost human uterine cervix cells(HeLa). We also used the L-lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) release assay to show that SC-C/SEA elicits a strong A549 tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte(CTL) response in vitro. The results suggest that SC-C/SEA shows specific activity against CEA-positive cells and has potential application in CEA-targeted cancer immunotherapy.

Key words: Carcinoembryonic antigen, Staphylococcal enterotoxin A, Single-chain disulfide-stabilized Fv(scdsFv), Escherichia coli, Anti-tumor immunity