Targeting Human β-Microglobulin with Monoclonal Antibodies in Multiple Myeloma - A Potential in Treatment

Abstract

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal plasma cell neoplasm that utilizes bone marrow microenvironment for survival and proliferation [1-3]. However, current therapies could rarely cure MM. The relapse or refractory aspect of the disease is commonly seen in MM patients, especially among patients with high-risk MM. In past decades, targeted immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) emerged as a major new treatment modality that offered great benefits for MM patients [4]. Different approaches, aimed at finding potential mAbbased therapeutics for this disease including identification of alternative, or novel, target antigens [5], conjugation of mAbs with classic or novel drugs [6], and generation of chimeric antigen receptor T cells with specific mAbs [7], have been developed by scientists. Recently, our group has generated the mAbs that work directly against human β2-microglobulin (β2M) both in vitro and in the mouse experiments, and has demonstrated that β2M is a potential target for MM treatment [8].