Rituximab Light chain (41-55) – Cancer Peptides

Rituximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of some cancers like CD20 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a few autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. However, antibody treatment can lead to generation of neutralising antibodies thus curtailing the efficacy of the therapy. CD 4+ T cells are critical to initiate antibody response so identification of epitopes within molecules using T cell assays can be a vital tool for understanding the immune response and thereby prevent induction of neutralising antibodies. Within rituximab, the variable region of the light chain (41-55) was found to have strong affinity for leukocytes in a specific binding assay, the epitope was also correlated to patients who developed neutralising antibodies. This T cell epitope within rituximab in further immune studies could help design or selection of antibodies without T cell epitopes present for low immunogenicity.