Non-canonical NF-κB Plays a Pivotal Role in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Generation of a humanized afucosylated BAFF-R antibody with broad activity against human B-cell malignancies

B-cell activating factor receptor (BAFF-R) is a mature B-cell survival receptor, which is highly expressed in a wide variety of B-cell malignancies but with minimal expression in immature B cells. These properties make BAFF-R an attractive target for therapy of B-cell lymphomas. We generated a novel humanized anti BAFF-R monoclonal antibody (mAb) with high specificity and potent in vitro and in vivo activity against B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. The humanized variants of an original chimeric BAFF-R mAb retained BAFF-R binding affinity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against a panel of human cell lines and primary lymphoma samples. Furthermore, 1 humanized BAFF-R mAb clone and its afucosylated version, glycoengineered to optimize the primary mechanism of action, prolonged survival of immunodeficient mice bearing human tumor cell lines or patient-derived lymphoma xenografts in 3 separate models, compared with controls. Finally, the tissue specificity of this humanized mAb was confirmed against a broad panel of normal human tissues. Taken together, we have identified a robust lead-candidate BAFF-R mAb for clinical development.

Pharmacological significance of the non-canonical NF-κB pathway in tumorigenesis

The understanding of the impact of the non-canonical NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells) pathway in several human diseases including autoimmune, inflammatory and cancers has been on the rise. This pathway induces the expression of several important genes involved in diverse biological processes. Though progress has been made in understanding the activation, regulation and biological functions of the non-canonical NF-κB signaling mechanism, no specific drug has been approved to target NF-κB inducing kinase (NIK), the key signaling molecule in this pathway. The inhibition of NIK can serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for various ailments, especially for the treatment of different types of human cancers. There are other targetable downstream molecules in this pathway as well. This review highlights the possible role of the non-canonical NF-κB pathway in normal physiology as well as in different cancers and discusses about various pharmacological strategies to modulate the activation of this pathway.