WO2012136250A1

WO2012136250A1 - Hmgb1 specific monoclonal antibodies

Info

Publication number: WO2012136250A1
Application number: PCT/EP2011/055274
Authority: WO
Inventors: Cristina SCOZZESI
Original assignee: Dia.Pro Diagnostic Bioprobes S.R.L.
Priority date: 2011-04-05
Filing date: 2011-04-05
Publication date: 2012-10-11
Also published as: EP2694548B1; US20140030271A1; US9045534B2; JP2014511688A; EP2694548A1

Abstract

The present invention concerns monoclonal antibodies specifically binding the human HMGB1 protein and further HMGB1 proteins of mammalian origin and also concerns fragments thereof, nucleic acids encoding such antibodies or fragments thereof, as well as vectors, cells, and compositions comprising the antibodies or nucleic acids, and uses thereof.

Description

HMGB1 SPECIFIC MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES

Field of the invention

State of the art

High-mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1 ), also known as high-mobility group protein 1 (HMG-1 ) and amphoterin, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HMGB1 gene (Ferrari et al., 1996).

Activated macrophages and monocytes secrete HMGB1 as a mediator of inflammation (Wang et al., 1999). Moreover, HMGB1 forms complexes with several other molecules or complex structures, including lipopolysaccharide (LPS), IL-1 b, DNA, nucleosomes (Bianchi, 2009), and others. HMGB1 , alone or in complex with partners, binds to TLR4 (Yang et al., 2010, Yang and Tracey, 2010) to RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end- products), TLR2 and other receptors (Bianchi, 2009). This signaling results in recruitment of inflammatory cells to sites of tissue damage, dendritic cell activation, cytokine secretion (Bianchi and Manfredi, 2009). This positions HMGB1 at the intersection of sterile and infectious inflammatory responses. Moreover, HMGB1 also promotes the reconstruction of damaged tissue after trauma or infection (Bianchi and Manfredi, 2009). Individual monoclonal antibodies that neutralize HMGB1 can confer protection against damage and tissue injury during arthritis, colitis, ischemia, sepsis, endotoxemia, and systemic lupus erythematosus, but not necessarily against all thee conditions at the same time, and not necessarily with the same profile of safety and lack of unwanted effects. The need and importance is therefore increasingly felt for the identification of a monoclonal antibody not only specific for HMGB1 , but actually specific to well-determined surfaces on the protein, giving it the ability to interfere with the binding of HMGB1 to a subset of its partners. It is therefore object of the present invention the development of a novel monoclonal antibody specific for HMGB1 , and in particular capable of interfering with its chemoattractant activities towards inflammatory cells. Summary of the invention

The present invention concerns a hybridoma which was deposited on the 22nd of December 2010, under deposit accession number PD 10002, with the International Deposit Authority for cell lines and hybridomas "Interlab Cell Line Collection" (ICLC), which is a Core Facility of the Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro in Genoa (Italy).

The hybridoma generated according to the present invention (HG-HMGB1 ) produces a mouse anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) also defined as DPH1 .1 .

A further aspect of the present invention is a mouse (murine) anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody produced from the HG-HMGB1 hybridoma, or fragments and derivatives thereof.

The present invention also provides the sequence of light and heavy chains of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody.

A still further aspect of the present invention is a cell or vector comprising the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody produced from the HG- HMGB1 hybridoma.

The variable region of the heavy chain of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention has a nucleotide sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO. 2 and an amino acid sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO.4.

The variable domain of the light chain of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention, has a nucleotide sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO. 3 and an amino acid sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO.5.

The present invention further relates to a murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody, for use as a diagnostic agent.

The present invention still further relates to a murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody, for use as a therapeutic agent. A further aspect is a pharmaceutical composition comprising the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody of the present invention as an active ingredient and a pharmaceutically bioactive excipient.

As will be further described in the detailed description of the invention, the pharmaceutical composition of the present invention has the advantages of being specific for the inhibition of the chemoattractant activities of HMGB1 . Brief description of the drawings

The characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description reported below, from the Examples given for illustrative and non-limiting purposes, and from the annexed Figures 1 -6, wherein:

Figure 1 : shows representative western blots of 500 ng (lane 1 ) or 100 ng (lane 2) of the recombinant BoxA fragment of HMGB1 (negative control) and 500 ng (lane 3) or 100 ng (lane 4) of recombinant HMGB1 incubated with either the anti-HMGB1 mAb DPH1 .1 (top panel) or a control anti-Box-A subunit Ab control (bottom panel), as described in Example 3.

Figure 2: shows representative micrographs of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from either wild type (wt) mice or Hmgbl-/- mice that were stained by immunofluorescence with the anti-HMGB1 mAb DPH1 .1 . Scale bar represents 20 μιτι, as described in Example 3.

Figure 3: shows migration of 3T3 cells towards HMGB1 in the presence of the indicated concentrations of the anti-HMGB1 mAb, examined using a modified Boyden chamber assay. Each bar represents the mean number of migrated cells ± standard deviation of triplicate samples, as described in Example 4.

Figure 4: shows the results of the in vivo experiments of inflammatory cell recruitment, as described in Example 5.

Figure 5A and Figure 5B: show the results of the representative immunohistochemical micrographs of control (Figure 5A) or Clo-L-treated (Figure 5B) livers from HBV transgenic mice, two days after intravenous injection of 107 HBV-specific CTLs as described in Example 5. In particular: HMGB1 staining in brown. Note the nuclear-to-cytoplasm translocation of HMGB1 in hepatocytes surrounded by PMNs (arrowhead). Scale bar represents 150 μιη. The experiment was replicated in triplicate. Error bars show standard deviation. ^* p<0.05 and ^** p<0.01 between DPH1 .1 and isotype-matched irrelevant antibody (ANOVA plus t-test with Bonferroni correction).

Figure 6A: and Figure 6B: are representative graphs of the results of the in vivo experiments as described in Example 5. In particular, sALT levels in the blood (Figure 6A) and absolute number of Gr-1 ^high CD1 1 b⁺ neutrophils (PMNs) recovered from the livers (Figure 6B) of 6 HBV transgenic mice that received NaCI (white squares), Clo-L and irrelevant (Irr) lgG1 mAb (black triangles) or Clo-L and the anti-HMGB1 mAb DPH1 .1 (black circles) along with the intravenous injection of 10⁷ HBV-specific CTLs. Error bars show standard deviation. ^* p<0.05 and ^** p<0.01 between DPH1 .1 and isotype- matched irrelevant antibody (ANOVA plus t-test with Bonferroni correction). Detailed description of the invention

The present invention concerns a hybridoma HB-HMGB1 which was internationally deposited on the 22nd of December 2010, under deposit accession number PD 10002, with the International Deposit Authority for cell lines and hybridomas "Interlab Cell Line Collection" (ICLC), which is a Core Facility of the Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro in Genoa (Italy).

The hybridoma generated according to the present invention (HG-HMGB1 ) produces a mouse (murine) anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody (mAb).

The type of the immunized animal used in preparing the hybridoma can include a mouse, rat, hamster, rabbit, goat and horse, among which a mouse is preferably used. When a mouse is used, its strain is not particularly limited, but BALB/c mouse is preferably used.

A further aspect of the present invention is a mouse anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody produced from the HG-HMGB1 hybridoma, also defined as DPH1 .1 , or fragments and derivatives thereof.

The definition monoclonal antibody used herein includes fragments and derivatives of the monoclonal antibody, or any humanized anti-HMGB1 whose sequence is derived from DPH1 .1 or from any antibody produced from the HG-HMGB1 hybridoma. Specifically, the fragments and derivatives of the monoclonal antibody are exemplified by Fab, Fab', F(ab)2 and sFv fragment, and of sequences in the present antibody replacing sequences of antibodies of human origin, or from other mammalian species, not limited to IgG subclasses, but comprising IgM, igE, IgD, IgE or the like.

The monoclonal antibody in the present embodiment can be obtained by immunizing an animal with HMGBI Ag as antigen by a known immunological method and then using cells of the immunized animal to prepare a hybridoma. DPH1 .1 monoclonal antibodies of the present invention are produced by the hybridoma HB-HMGB1 .

Each heavy chain has two regions, the constant region and the variable region. The constant region of the heavy chain corresponds to the Mus musculus immunoglobulin heavy chain complex (Igh) on chromosome 12 NCBI Reference Sequence: NG_005838.1

The light chain has two successive domains: one constant domain and one variable domain. The constant domain corresponds to the Mus musculus immunoglobulin kappa chain complex (Igk) on chromosome 6 NCBI Reference Sequence: NG_005612.

The variable domain of the light chain of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention has a nucleotide sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO. 3 and an amino acid sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO.5.

For the purposes of the present invention, the HMGB1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) has a corresponding SEQ ID NO. as follows:

SEQ ID NO. 1 corresponds to the amino acid sequence of the 17-mer peptide P1 (KGKPDAAKKGVVKAEKS) derived from HMGB1 ;

SEQ ID NO. 2 corresponds to the nucleotide sequence of the cDNAs of the variable regions of the heavy chain of DPH1 .1 , [mus musculus];

CTGCTCGAGGAGTCTGGGGCAGAGCTTGTGAAGCCAGGGGCCTCAGTCAA

GTTGTCCTGCACAGCTTCTGGCTTCAACATTGAAGACACCTATGTGCACT

GGGTGAAGCAGAGGCCTGAACAGGGCCTGGAGTGGATTGGAAGGATTGAT

CCTGCGAATGGTAATAGTAAATATGACCCGAAGTTCCAGGGCAAGGCCAC

TCTAACAGCAGACACATTCTCCAACACAGCCTACCTGCAGCTCAGCAGCC

TGACATCTGAGGACACTGCCGTCTATTACTGTGCrGL4/4C7GGG/4CGGGG

GC77TGGACTACTGGGGTCAAGGAACC

wherein: the "bold" sequence corresponds to the V heavy chain exon in the

VHSM7 mouse germline genomic locus, the sequence in "italic" corresponds to the diversity region and the "underlined" sequence corresponds to the mouse germline IGHJ4 genomic locus.

The correspondence between the cDNA and the genomic loci is approximate, as expected, due to mutations introduced during B cell maturation.

SEQ ID NO. 3 corresponds to the nucleotide sequence of the cDNAs of the variable domains of the light chain of DPH1 .1 , [mus musculus];

TTGTTATTACTCGCTGCCCAACCAGCCATGGCCGAGCTCGTGTTGACGCA

GCCGCCATCGTCTCTGGCTGTGTCTGCAGGAGAAAAGGTCACTATGAGCT

GTAAGTCCAGTCAAAGTGTTTTATACAGTTCAAATCAGAAGAACTACTTG

GCCTGGTACCAGCAGAAACCAGGGCAGTCTCCTAAACTGCTGATCTACTG

GGCATCCACTAGGGAGTCTGGTGTCCCTGATCGCTTCACAGGCAGTGGAT

CTGGGACAGATTTTACTCTTAACATCACCAATGTACAACCTGACGACCTG

GCAGTTTATTACTGTCATCAATACCTCTCCTCGGrC/4CGrrCGG7GCrGG

GACCAAGCTGGAACTGAAACGGGCTGATGCTGCACC

wherein: the "bold" sequence corresponds to the lgkv8-27 kappa light chain

V exon in the mouse germline genomic locus, the sequence in "italic" corresponds to the mouse germline IGKJ5 genomic locus.

SEQ ID NO. 4 corresponds to the amino acid sequence of variable regions of the heavy chain of DPH1 .1 , [mus musculus]; LLEESGAELVKPGASVKLSCTASGFNIEDTYVHWVKQRPEQGLEWIGRID

PANGNSKYDPKFQGKATLTADTFSNTAYLQLSSLTSEDTAVYYCAVTGTG

ALDYWGQGT

where the "bold" sequences correspond to the CDR regions 1 , 2 and 3 respectively, as identified through the VBASE2 website (http://www.vbase2.org/).

SEQ ID NO. 5 corresponds to the amino acid sequence of variable domains of the light chain of DPH1 .1 , [mus musculus];

ELVLTQPPSSLAVSAGEKVTMSCKSSQSVLYSSNQKNYLAWYQQKPGQ S

PKLLIYWASTRESGVPDRFTGSGSGTDFTLNITNVQPDDLAVYYCHQYLS SVTFGAGTKLELKRADAA

The murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention is specific for a known epitope of HMGB1 , represented by the sequence KGKPDAAKKGVVKAEKS that is identical in mouse, human and most other mammals, and shows minimal cross-reactivity with other proteins, including HMGB2 which is 80% identical in sequence to HMGB1 . Specificity of the anti-HMGB1 mAb has been in fact seen with respect to, but is not limited to the following mammalian HMGB1 genes:

- Homo sapiens, where HMGB1 has the following Reference Sequences (Ref Seq): NM_002128.4→ NP_0021 19.1 ;

- Mus musculus HMGB1 : NM_010439.3→ NP_034569.1 ;

- Rattus norvegicus HMGB1 NM_012963.2→ NP_037095.1 ;

- Bos taurus HMGB1 : NM_176612.1→ NP_788785.1 ;

- Equus caballus HMGB1 : NM_001081835.1→ NP_001075304.1

It is therefore an advantage of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention to be specific for a epitope of HMGB1 that is identical in many mammalian species.

A further advantage of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to the present invention is that it shows minimal cross-reactivity with other proteins, including HMGB2 which is 80% identical in sequence to HMGB1 .

A still further advantage of the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody DPH1 .1 is that of being able to block HMGB1 -elicited cell migration. This unexpected advantage is important since the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the site of tissue damage is an important element in the causation and continuation of acute and chronic inflammation.

It is shown in the example that HMGB1 release from hepatocytes contributes to recruit PMNs into the liver, and that neutralization of HMGB1 with DPH1 .1 mAb reduces the recruitment of PMNs.

The DPH1 .1 mAb according to the present invention advantageously blocks cell migration, and in particular has been seen to reduce polymorphonuclear leukocytes recruitment in vivo, as well as in vitro. Accordingly, the severity of hepatitis (as measured by sALT levels in the blood) is reduced.

A still further aspect of the present invention is a cell or a vector comprising the murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody produced from the HG- HMGB1 hybridoma.

The present invention further relates to a monoclonal antibody, for use as a diagnostic agent.

The principal diagnostic agents are X-ray-contrast preparations, radioactive isotopes, and dyes. A diagnostic agent can be used for making images of many different body parts.

The monoclonal antibody of the present invention can be used in immunoassays for detection and/or quantification of HMGB1 since the monoclonal antibody has the advantage of recognizing an epitope that is identical in mouse, human and other mammals, for example in a sample suspected of containing HMGB1 protein, either unmodified or post- translationally modified. Such immunoassay can be used in clinical diagnosis of pathologies associated with trauma, tissue damage, acute and chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases including lupus and in the screening of blood products.

The present invention still further relates to a monoclonal antibody, for use as a therapeutic agent.

Targeted therapies are the focus of much research in medicine. Biological therapies that target pathology-associated antigens give hope for improvement of survival in many types of illnesses. Tumor specific antigens have been for example widely studied in the hope for cancer treatment. The mAb according to the present invention is useful in the treatment of pathologies including but not limited to hepatitis, trauma, infection, arthritis, ischemia, organ transpantation, in which the inhibition of the chemoattractant activities of HMGB1 is implicated.

A further aspect is a pharmaceutical composition comprising the monoclonal antibody of the present invention as an active ingredient and a pharmaceutically bioactive excipient.

The pharmaceutical composition of the present invention has the advantages of being specific for the inhibition of the chemoattractant activities of HMGB1 .

EXAMPLES

Example 1

Preparation of monoclonal antibody: Immunization of mouse and hvbridoma generation

The mouse monoclonal lgG1 DPH1 .1 Ab specific for mouse HMGB1 was generated by injecting C57BL/6 6-week-old female mice at two-week intervals with three subcutaneous doses (0.2 mg/mouse) of the 17-mer peptide P1 (KGKPDAAKKGVVKAEKS) (SEQ ID N0.1 ) derived from HMGB1 .

Hybridomas according to the present invention (HG-HMGB1 ) were generated from splenocytes and from a hypoxanthine-aminopterin-thymine (HAT) sensitive myeloma P3/NSI/1 -AG4-1 cells by standard techniques and tested by ELISA against the immunogen.

Example 2

Preparation of monoclonal antibody: Culture of the hvbridoma Hybridoma colonies are grown in RPMI 1640 medium additioned with 15%FCS and HAT for 10 days, and manually selected after microscopic analysis.

HMGB1 positivity of the colonies was monitored by ELISA analysis of the colony supernatant.

Positive colonies were transferred to larger wells and subjected to 2 rounds of limiting dilution.

Stable and immortalized DPH1 .1 hybridoma clones were obtained.

The DPH1 .1 clone was grown for 3 months in a disposable bioreactor for efficient protein expression, using standard techniques, supernatant was collected.

Purification of the supernatant to obtain the monoclonal antibody was performed on a PROT A chromatographic column.

The monoclonal antibody anti HMGB1 was therefore obtained with a percentage of purity of 95%. The monoclonal antibody anti HMGB1 was further purified to 100% purity with further chromatographic purification passages.

Example 3

Anti-HMGB1 Ab (DPH1 .1 mAb) characterization and specificity testing by immunofluorescence

Specificity of DPH1 .1 mAb was monitored by both Western blot analysis (Figure 1 ) and by immunofluorescence (Figure 2).

Anti-HMGB-1 Ab (DPH1 .1 Ab) characterization and specificity testing by Western blot

Western blots of the recombinant BoxA domain of HMGB1 (negative control) incubated with either the anti-HMGB-1 mAb DPH1 .1 or a control anti-BoxA mAb control were performed.

Briefly, 500 ng or 100 ng of recombinant HMGB1 and the (negative control) recombinant BoxA domain of HMGB1 (HMGBiotech, Milan, Italy) were separated by gel electrophoresis and transferred onto membranes as described (Scaffidi et al., 2002).

Results As can be seen in Figure 1 , the anti-HMGB1 mAb DPH1 .1 according to the present invention specifically binds the recombinant HMGB1 , but not the BoxA domain.

Immunofluorescence

DPH1 .1 mAb, anti-BoxA mAb (HMGBiotech, Milan, Italy) and goat anti- mouse lgG1 Ab (BD PharMingen) were applied at 1 g/ml dilution. Immunofluorescence was performed as described (Scaffidi et al., 2002) on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from either wild type mice or HmgbV^1' mice. DPH1 .1 mAb and AlexaFluor 633-labelled goat anti-mouse lgG1 Ab (BD PharMingen) were applied at a 50 μ9/ιτιΙ dilution.

Results

As can be seen in Figure 2: only mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from Hmgbl-/- mice were stained with the anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody DPH1 .1 .

Example 4

Transmigration assay

The in vitro activity of DPH1 .1 mAb was monitored in trans-well migration assays as described (Palumbo et al., 2009).

Briefly, recombinant HMGB1 was added to the lower chamber at the concentration of 30 ng/ml. Increasing concentrations of DPH1 .1 mAb (or of an irrelevant isotype-matched mAb) were added to fifty thousand 3T3 cells. Cell migration was assessed by a modified Boyden chamber assay.

Boyden chambers were incubated at 37 °C in 5% C0₂ for 3 hrs. Cells remaining on the upper section of the filters were removed mechanically. Cells that migrated to the lower section of the filters were fixed with ethanol, stained with Giemsa (Sigma-Aldrich), and counted in 10 random fields/filter. Each assay was performed in duplicate and repeated at least three times, independently.

Results:

As can be seen in Figure 3, increasing concentrations of DPH1 .1 mAb unexpectedly inhibit cell migration. These results show the surprising effect of the DPH1 .1 mAb, which blocks HMGB1 elicited cell migration. Example 5

In vivo experiments: inflammatory cell recruitment

We had previously shown that inflammatory cells are recruited into the liver by the release of HMGB1 protein (Sitia et al, 1997).

Recruitment of inflammatory cells can be amplified by removal of Kupffer cells (KCs) from the liver, which can be obtained by treatment of the mice with clodronate (Clo-L).

In order to amplify the effect of HMGB1 , we removed Kupffer cells (KCs) from HBV transgenic mice, and we injected them with CD8 T cells from mice immunized against HBV (this causes acute hepatitis in the mice). In these mice, we found far larger numbers intrahepatic PMNs than in mice not treated with clodronate (Figure 4). We also found many more hepatocytes expressing cytoplasmic HMGB1 juxtaposed to or surrounded by polymorphonucleate cells (PMNs) in comparison to mice that were not treated with clodronate (Figure 5A abd Figure 5B).

Results

Removal of KCs promoted accumulation of cytoplasmic HMGB1 in hepatocytes and intrahepatic PMN infiltration over what normally seen in mice where KCs were not removed.

Effect of DPH1 .1 administration

We tested the effect of administration of the DPH1 .1 mAb.

The livers of mice treated with DPH1 .1 mAb contained many more hepatocytes expressing cytoplasmic HMGB1 (not shown), higher sALT values (Figure 6A), but reduced numbers infiltrating PMNs (Figure 6B).

Results

These results show that HMGB1 release from hepatocytes contributes to recruit PMNs into the liver, and that neutralization of HMGB1 with DPH1 .1 reduces the recruitment of PMNs and hepatitis.

The DPH1 .1 mAb according to the present invention blocks cell migration towards HMGB1 in vivo, as well as in vitro.

Methods:

Mice. HBV replication-competent transgenic mouse (lineage 1 .3.32) have been previously described (Guidotti et al., 1995). Lineage 1 .3.32 (inbred C57BL/6, H-2b) was crossed with B10.D2 mice (H-2d) to produce H-2bxd F1 hybrids prior to injection of H-2d-restricted hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-specific CD8 T cell lines. C57BL/6 and B6.PL-Thy1 a/CyJ (Thy-1 .1 ) mice were purchased from The Scripps Research Institute breeding colony or from Charles River Laboratories (Calco, Italy). Bone marrow chimeric phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK)-GFP mice replicating HBV were created by transplanting BM cells derived from PGK-GFP (H-2bxd F1 hybrids, a kind gift of Michele De Palma, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy) into irradiated 1 .3.32 HBV mice. Thy-1 .1 mice were crossed once with B10.D2 mice prior to immunization with plasmid DNA- and vaccinia virus-encoding HBsAg as previously described (lannacone et al., 2005). In all experiments mice were matched for age (8 weeks), sex (males) and, in case of lineage 1 .3.32, for serum hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) levels before experimental manipulation. All animals were housed in pathogen-free rooms under strict barrier conditions. These studies were approved by the Animal Review Board of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute.

Injection of HBV-specific CD8 T cell lines. HBV-specific CD8 T cell lines were derived from spleen cells of immunized nontransgenic Thy-1 .1 x B10.D2 male mice as described (lannacone et al., 2005). After 3 weeks of in vitro stimulation, the cells were tested for antigen specificity by flow cytometry. CD8+ cells that were over 95% specific for the immunodominant peptide epitope Env 28-39 of HBsAg (Ando et al., 1994) were injected intravenously at different doses (0.5 x 10⁷ cells/mouse, 10⁷ cells/mouse or 5 x 10⁷ cells/mouse) into 1 .3.32 mice. One, 2, 3, or 5 days later mice were killed and their livers were perfused and harvested for histological and flow cytometry analyses, or they were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C for subsequent molecular analyses.

Depletion of KCs. KC depletion was achieved by intravenous injection of 200 μΙ of clodronate-containing liposomes (Clo-L, a gift of Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) 3 days before CD8 T cell transfer. From the above description and the above-noted examples, the advantage attained by the product described and obtained according to the present invention are apparent.

REFERENCES

Ando K, Guidotti LG, Cerny A, Ishikawa T, Chisari FV (1994), CTL access to tissue antigen is restricted in vivo. J Immunol. 1994 Jul 15;153(2):482-8.

Bianchi ME (2009) HMGB1 loves company. J Leukoc Biol 86: 573-6

Bianchi ME and Manfredi AA. (2009) Immunology. Dangers in and out. Science

323:

1683-4

Ferrari S, Finelli P, Rocchi M, Bianchi ME (July 1996). "The active gene that encodes human high mobility group 1 protein (HMG1 ) contains introns and maps to chromosome 13". Genomics 35 (2): 367-71 .

Guidotti, L.G., B. Matzke, H. Schaller, and F.V. Chisari. 1995. High-level hepatitis B

virus replication in transgenic mice. J Virol 69:6158-6169 lannacone, M., G. Sitia, M. Isogawa, P. Marchese, M.G. Castro, P.R. Lowenstein, F.V. Chisari, Z.M. Ruggeri, and LG. Guidotti. 2005. Platelets mediate cytotoxic T lymphocyteinduced liver damage. Nature medicine 1 1 :1 167-1 169

Palumbo, R., F. De Marchis, T. Pusterla, A. Conti, M. Alessio, and M.E. Bianchi. 2009. "Src family kinases are necessary for cell migration induced by extracellular HMGB1 ." J Leukoc Biol 86:617-623.

Scaffidi, P., T. Misteli, and M.E. Bianchi. 2002. "Release of chromatin protein HMGB1 by necrotic cells triggers inflammation." Nature 418:191 -195.

Sitia G, lannacone M, Muller S, Bianchi ME and Guidotti LG (2007) Treatment with HMGB1 inhibitors diminishes CTL-induced liver disease in HBV transgenic mice. J Leukoc Biol 81 : 100-7 Wang H, Bloom O, Zhang M, Vishnubhakat JM, Ombrellino M, Che J, Frazier A, Yang H, Ivanova S, Borovikova L, Manogue KR, Faist E, Abraham E, Andersson J, Andersson U, Molina PE, Abumrad NN, Sama A, Tracey KJ (July 1999). "HMG- 1 as a late mediator of endotoxin lethality in mice". Science 285 (5425): 248-51 .

Yang H, Hreggvidsdottir HS, Palmblad K, Wang H, Ochani M, Li J, Lu B, Chavan S, Rosas-Ballina M, Al-Abed Y, Akira S, Bierhaus A, Erlandsson-Harris H, Andersson U, Tracey KJ (June 2010). "A critical cysteine is required for HMGB1 binding to Toll-like receptor 4 and activation of macrophage cytokine release". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107 (26): 1 1942-7.

Yang H, Tracey KJ (2010). "Targeting HMGB1 in inflammation". Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1799 (1 -2): 149-56.

Claims

1 . A hybridoma which is deposited under deposit Accession No. PD 10002, with International Deposit Authority Interlab Cell Line Collection, Genoa Italy.

2. A murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody produced by the hybridoma according to claim 1 , or fragments and derivatives thereof.

3. The murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to claim 2, wherein the variable region of the heavy chain has nucleotide sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO. 2 and an amino acid sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO.4, or fragments and derivatives thereof.

4. The murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to claim 2, wherein the variable domain of the light chain has nucleotide sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO. 3 and an amino acid sequence which corresponds to SEQ ID NO.5, or fragments and derivatives thereof.

5. The murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to anyone of claims 2 to 4, for use as a diagnostic agent.

6. The murine anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody according to anyone of claims 2 to 4 for use as a therapeutic agent.

7. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the monoclonal antibody according to anyone of claims 2 to 4 as an active ingredient and a pharmaceutically bioactive excipient.