Go to The Journal of Clinical Investigation
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Transfers
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Physician-Scientist Development
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • All ...
  • Videos
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Resource and Technical Advances
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Editorials
    • Perspectives
    • Physician-Scientist Development
    • Reviews
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • In-Press Preview
  • Resource and Technical Advances
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Editorials
  • Perspectives
  • Physician-Scientist Development
  • Reviews
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Transfers
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
ENT2 facilitates brain endothelial cell penetration and blood-brain barrier transport by a tumor-targeting anti-DNA autoantibody
Zahra Rattray, Gang Deng, Shenqi Zhang, Anupama Shirali, Christopher K. May, Xiaoyong Chen, Benedette J. Cuffari, Jun Liu, Pan Zou, Nicholas J.W. Rattray, Caroline H. Johnson, Valentina Dubljevic, James A. Campbell, Anita Huttner, Joachim M. Baehring, Jiangbing Zhou, James E. Hansen
Zahra Rattray, Gang Deng, Shenqi Zhang, Anupama Shirali, Christopher K. May, Xiaoyong Chen, Benedette J. Cuffari, Jun Liu, Pan Zou, Nicholas J.W. Rattray, Caroline H. Johnson, Valentina Dubljevic, James A. Campbell, Anita Huttner, Joachim M. Baehring, Jiangbing Zhou, James E. Hansen
View: Text | PDF
Research Article Oncology

ENT2 facilitates brain endothelial cell penetration and blood-brain barrier transport by a tumor-targeting anti-DNA autoantibody

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) prevents antibodies from penetrating the CNS and limits conventional antibody-based approaches to brain tumors. We now show that ENT2, a transporter that regulates nucleoside flux at the BBB, may offer an unexpected path to circumventing this barrier to allow targeting of brain tumors with an anti-DNA autoantibody. Deoxymab-1 (DX1) is a DNA-damaging autoantibody that localizes to tumors and is synthetically lethal to cancer cells with defects in the DNA damage response. We found that DX1 penetrated brain endothelial cells and crossed the BBB, and mechanistic studies identify ENT2 as the key transporter. In efficacy studies, DX1 crosses the BBB to suppress orthotopic glioblastoma and breast cancer brain metastases. ENT2-linked transport of autoantibodies across the BBB has potential to be exploited in brain tumor immunotherapy, and its discovery raises hypotheses on actionable mechanisms of CNS penetration by neurotoxic autoantibodies in CNS lupus.

Authors

Zahra Rattray, Gang Deng, Shenqi Zhang, Anupama Shirali, Christopher K. May, Xiaoyong Chen, Benedette J. Cuffari, Jun Liu, Pan Zou, Nicholas J.W. Rattray, Caroline H. Johnson, Valentina Dubljevic, James A. Campbell, Anita Huttner, Joachim M. Baehring, Jiangbing Zhou, James E. Hansen

×
Problems with a PDF?

This file is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. If you have not installed and configured the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your system.

Having trouble reading a PDF?

PDFs are designed to be printed out and read, but if you prefer to read them online, you may find it easier if you increase the view size to 125%.

Having trouble saving a PDF?

Many versions of the free Acrobat Reader do not allow Save. You must instead save the PDF from the JCI Online page you downloaded it from. PC users: Right-click on the Download link and choose the option that says something like "Save Link As...". Mac users should hold the mouse button down on the link to get these same options.

Having trouble printing a PDF?

  1. Try printing one page at a time or to a newer printer.
  2. Try saving the file to disk before printing rather than opening it "on the fly." This requires that you configure your browser to "Save" rather than "Launch Application" for the file type "application/pdf", and can usually be done in the "Helper Applications" options.
  3. Make sure you are using the latest version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

Supplemental data - Download (6.43 MB)

Advertisement

Copyright © 2026 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN 2379-3708

Sign up for email alerts