Purified anti-CD3 × anti-HER2 bispecific antibody potentiates cytokine-induced killer cells of poor spontaneous cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Chemical crosslinking is the most straightforward method to produce bispecific antibodies (BsAb) for arming ex vivo activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes. However, heterogeneous polymers are produced by chemical crosslinking. Currently, it is not known under what circumstances or to what extent further purification is needed. RESULTS: In this study, we purified Traut’s Reagent-Sulfo-SMCC crosslinked anti-CD3 × anti-HER2 by size-exclusion column chromatography and compared the capacity of the crude and the purified forms of the BsAb in enhancing cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro. We found that the purified BsAb assisted CIK cells more efficiently than the crude form only when the spontaneous cytotoxicity of the CIK cells was relatively low; otherwise, the two forms performed almost identically. CONCLUSIONS: For the CIK cells of low spontaneous cytotoxicity, purified BsAb is a more powerful substitute for crude BsAb in enhancing their killing efficacy. However, that purification of BsAb is not necessary for robust CIK cells. This phenomenon also corroborates that CIK-mediated cytotoxicity is highly dependent on cell contact. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2045-3701-4-70) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.