Alemtuzumab Treatment Can Affect CD52 Positive As Well As CD52 Negative GPI-Deficient, Sezary Cells Allowing Long-Term Disease Control

Abstract 2491

Alemtuzumab (ALT) is a monoclonal anti CD52 antibody used for the treatment of CD52 positive lymphoid malignancies and to deplete T cells in vivo and in vitro to prevent graft rejection or GVHD after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). Membrane CD52 expression depends on the presence of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. GPI deficiency is frequently found in small populations of normal and malignant hematopoietic cells, including T and B cells (frequencies from <0.01 to 2%). These cells lack expression of GPI-linked proteins like CD52 as can be detected by absence of staining of FLAER, which is an aerolysin that specifically binds to mammalian GPI anchors. After alloSCT using ALT for T cell depletion, reconstitution of FLAER and CD52 double negative cells is seen, and outgrowth of CD52 negative malignant cell populations has been found after single agent treatment with ALT in malignant diseases. However, GPI deficient cells have been suggested to have a lower proliferative potential and a decreased survival due to their increased susceptibility to spontaneous complement mediated cell lysis, possibly explaining the infrequent dominant outgrowth of GPI deficient clones in healthy individuals.

Sézary Syndrome (SS) is an aggressive cutaneous T cell lymphoma characterized by the presence of high numbers of neoplastic T cells expressing CD4 and CD52 in peripheral blood, lymph nodes and skin. Clinical responses in SS patients after single drug treatment with low dosed ALT have been described by several investigators. However, in 6 out of 6 patients analyzed, we found a small population of CD52 and FLAER negative Sézary cells, illustrating that a GPI negative subpopulation is frequently observed which may lead to outgrowth of CD52 negative Sézary cells. We treated 3 patients with successive courses of low dose ALT (10 mg subcutaneously once weekly until circulating malignant cells were < 1,000/mm³) and followed the kinetics of CD52- and CD52+ Sézary cells.

Before ALT treatment, a CD4+CD52-FLAER- T cell population was found in all three patients (0.01–0.06% of all circulating CD4+ T cells). As expected, a rapid decrease in absolute numbers of CD4+CD52+FLAER+ cells was observed after ALT treatment (decrease 94 to 100%). Surprisingly, despite the absence of the CD52 target molecule, the absolute number of CD4+CD52-FLAER- T cells also decreased after the first and second treatment cycles in all three patients (decreases between 22 and 96%), indicating that the massive in vivo ALT mediated lysis of CD52+ Sézary cells coincided with collateral damage of CD52- Sézary cells. Between successive treatment courses in the absence of circulating ALT, the absolute numbers of CD4+CD52+FLAER+ T cells showed a more rapid increase compared to CD4+CD52-FLAER- T cells in all patients (median 193 fold increase (range 17–896) versus 9 fold increase (range 2–144) respectively), illustrating a decreased in vivo proliferative potential of these GPI negative cells. After repeated doses of ALT, one of the patients developed resistance to ALT treatment. Phenotype analysis revealed that 97% of the 23,000/mm³ circulating Sézary cells were CD4+CD52-FLAER-. Clonality analysis showed that CD4+CD52+FLAER+ and CD4+CD52-FLAER–Sézary cell populations expressed identical T cell receptor V-beta chains demonstrating that both cell populations are part of the same initial clone of Sézary cells. At present, one year after the start of ALT treatment, reponses are still observed in both other patients without overgrowth of a CD4+CD52-FLAER–Sézary cells.

We conclude that despite presence of small populations of CD52 and GPI negative cells in patients with Sézary Syndrome, all patients respond to treatment with alemtuzumab. CD52 negative, GPI deficient Sézary cells showed high susceptibility to collateral damage during antibody treatment. During treatment intervals, CD52+ cells showed a faster recovery compared to CD52- cells, indicating a lower proliferative potential of the GPI deficient Sézary cells. Although, as shown in one patient, ultimate outgrowth of GPI deficient CD52- sezary cells can occur, the capacity to achieve long term control of both CD52+ and CD52- Sézary cells in several patients offers a rationale for treatment of SS with alemtuzumab, possibly in combination with a low dosed cytotoxic drug