Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Pharmacology and Toxicology

Degree Program

Pharmacology and Toxicology, MS

Committee Chair

Palmer, Kenneth

Committee Member

Matoba, Nobuyuki

Committee Member

Beverly, Levi

Committee Member

Guo, Haixun

Committee Member

Telang, Sucheta

Author's Keywords

plant-made pharmaceuticals; cancer glycosylation; lymphoma; drug development; immunotherapy; canine cancer

Abstract

This thesis investigates the therapeutic potential of Avaren-Fc (AvFc), a novel lectin fusion protein that integrates the Fc region of human IgG1 with the engineered lectin Avaren, specifically targeting lymphoma. The study delineates the in vitro binding capabilities of Avaren-Fc with a human B-cell lymphoma cell line, a canine B-cell lymphoma cell line, healthy canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and healthy human PBMCs. AvFc was shown to exhibit significant binding to human lymphoma cells. Furthermore, the direct cytotoxicity of Avaren-Fc against canine lymphoma cells, canine lymphoma cells and healthy canine PBMCs was assessed. It was found that there is no significant difference between AvFc binding capacity to healthy and cancer cells within canines. It was also found that AvFc binds significantly weaker to canine cancer cells when compared to human cancer cells. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the use of CL-BL1 cells as a canine model of lymphoma for AvFc is inappropriate, while confirming its promising implications as a treatment modality for human lymphoma.

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