AccScience Publishing / MI / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/MI025220049
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Development and characterization of Ea7Mab-10: A novel monoclonal antibody targeting ephrin type-A receptor 7

Shiori Fujisawa1 Haruto Yamamoto1 Tomohiro Tanaka1 Mika K. Kaneko1 Hiroyuki Suzuki1* Yukinari Kato1*
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1 Department of Antibody Drug Development, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
Received: 1 June 2025 | Revised: 17 August 2025 | Accepted: 10 September 2025 | Published online: 10 October 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The Eph receptor-ephrin system is essential for embryonic, neural, and vascular development and contributes to tumor promotion or suppression. Ephrin type-A receptor 7 (EphA7) has been identified as a tumor suppressor often lost or downregulated in lymphomas. In contrast, EPHA7 mutations have been suggested as potential driver genes in other cancers. However, the detailed molecular function has not been clarified. Therefore, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against EphA7 is essential for basic research and clinical applications. In this study, we developed a novel anti-human EphA7 mAb, Ea7Mab-10, using the Cell-Based Immunization and Screening (CBIS) method. Ea7Mab-10 reacted with EphA7-overexpressed Chinese hamster ovary-K1 (CHO/EphA7) and EphA7-overexpressed LN229 (LN229/EphA7) in flow cytometry. The binding affinities were determined as 3.1 × 10−9 M for CHO/EphA7 and 6.9 × 10−9 M for LN229/EphA7. Furthermore, Ea7Mab-10 did not show cross-reactivity with other Eph family members and was suitable for Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. These results demonstrate that Ea7Mab-10, developed using the CBIS method, supports basic research on EphA7 and could be used for mAb-based targeted therapies.

Keywords
Eph receptor
Ephrin type-A receptor 7
Cell-Based Immunization and Screening method
Monoclonal antibody
Flow cytometry
Western blotting
Immunohistochemistry
Funding
This research was supported in part by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) under grant numbers JP25am0521010, JP25ama121008, JP25ama221339, and JP25bm1123027, all awarded to Y.K., and by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) under grant numbers 24K18268 (to T.T.) and 25K10553 (to Y.K.).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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