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Haptenic Activity of L-Phenylalanine Mustard¹

Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

The immunological activity of an alkylating anticancer agent, L-phenylalanine mustard (PhM), was studied by hemagglutination, gel immunodiffusion, and counterimmunoelectrophoresis techniques. Wistar rats immunized with PhM-conjugated syngeneic normal tissue protein produced PhM-specific humoral antibodies. Rats of the same strain immunized with PhM-conjugated extract of Walker 256 carcinosarcoma produced carrier protein-, hapten-, and conjugate-specific antibodies. In comparative studies of Wistar and Fischer rats and New Zealand White rabbits immunized with PhM-conjugated extracts of Walker 256 or human tumors, a common PhM-specific antibody was detected in sera from the animals, regardless of the strain or species and regardless of the origin of the carrier protein. Intratumoral or intradermal injection of PhM that had not been conjugated with a protein moiety induced a PhM-specific antibody in Wistar rats with and without tumor. These results indicate that PhM may act against tumor by immunological as well as cytochemical mechanisms.

¹ This work was supported in part by Grant RR-00322 from the General Clinical Research Centers Program of the Division of Research Resources, NIH, and by American Cancer Society Institutional Grant IN-38-L.

Received 10/24/72. Accepted 5/ 4/73.