Detection of malignant tumor cells

A process for detecting the presence of cancerous or malignant tumor cells in a cell collection, comprising applying to said cell collection anti-MALIGNIN or a purified fraction thereof, whereby said anti-MALIGNIN or purified fraction thereof preferentially attaches to cancerous cells and can thereby be detected by attached visible or signal-emitting means, said MALIGNIN comprising a product, derived from brain tumor cells, which forms a single line precipitate with its specific antibody in quantitative preciptin tests and Ouchterlony gel diffusion tests, being soluble in water and aqueous solution having an acid or neutral pH, and insoluble at an alkaline pH, and has a spectrophotometric absorption peak wave length of 280 m.mu., a molecular weight of about 10,000, and an amino acid composition approximately as follows:

• ______________________________________ APPROXIMATE NO. OF RESIDUES ______________________________________ Aspartic Acid 9 Threonine 5 Serine 5 Glutamic Acid 13 Proline 4 Glycine 6 Alanine 7 Valine 6 1/2 Cysteine 1 Methionine 2 Isoleucine 4 Leucine 8 Tryosine 3 Phenylalanine 3 Lysine 6 Histidine 2 Arginine 5 89 ______________________________________
• the amino acids cysteic, hydroxyproline, norleucine, ammonia, isodesmosine, lysinonorleucine and gamma-aminobutyric acid being absent in detectable amounts.

A process for detecting the presence of cancerous of malignant tumor cells in a cell collection, comprising applying to said cell collection anti-MALIGNIN or a purified fraction thereof, and thereafter applying fluorescein-conjugated anti-(anti-MALIGNIN) thereto, whereby fluorescence occurs only in cancerous cells upon illumination, said MALIGNIN comprising a product, derived from brain tumor cells, which forms a single line precipitate with its specific antibody in quantitative precipitin tests and Ouchterlony gel diffusion tests, being soluble in water and aqueous solution having an acid or neutral pH, and insoluble at an alkaline pH, and has a spectrophotometric absorption peak wave length of 280 mu, a molecular weight of about 10,000, and an amino acid composition approximately as follows:

• ______________________________________ APPROXIMATE NO. OF RESIDUES ______________________________________ Aspartic Acid 9 Threonine 5 Serine 5 Glutamic Acid 13 Proline 4 Glycine 6 Alanine 7 Valine 6 1/2 Cysteine 1 Methionine 2 Isoleucine 4 Leucine 8 Tryosine 3 Phenylalanine 3 Lysine 6 Histidine 2 Arginine 5 89 ______________________________________
• the amino acids cysteic, hydroxyproline, norleucine, ammonia, isodesmosine, lysinonorleucine and gamma-aminobutyric acid being absent in detectable amounts.

The product comprising anti-MALIGNIN, or a purified fraction thereof, attached to a signal emitter, said MALIGNIN comprising a product, derived from brain tumor cells, which form a single line precipitate with its specific antibody in quantitative precipitin tests and Ouchterlony gel diffusion tests, being soluble in water and aqueous solution having an acid or neutral pH, and insoluble at an alkaline pH, and has a spectrophotometric absorption peak wave length of 280 mu, a molecular weight of about 10,000, and an amino acid composition approximately as follows:

• ______________________________________ APPROXIMATE NO. OF RESIDUES ______________________________________ Aspartic Acid 9 Threonine 5 Serine 5 Glutamic Acid 13 Proline 4 Glycine 6 Alanine 7 Valine 6 1/2 Cysteine 1 Methionine 2 Isoleucine 4 Leucine 8 Tryosine 3 Phenylalanine 3 Lysine 6 Histidine 2 Arginine 5 89 ______________________________________
• the amino acids cysteic, hydroxypyroline, norleucine, ammonia, isodesmosine, lysinonorleucine and gamma-aminobutyric acid being absent in detectable amounts.

A process for purifying intact anti-MALIGNIN comprising fractionating said intact anti-MALIGNIN by chromatographic separation to produce sub-fractions distinguishable from each other in terms of their content of intact anti-MALIGNIN protein and smaller molecular weight fractions identifiable as Fab or F.sub.c components, said MALIGNIN comprising a product, derived from brain tumor cells, which forms a single line precipitate with its specific antibody in quantitative precipitin tests and Ouchterlony gel diffusion tests, being soluble in water and aqueous solution having an acid or neutral pH, and insoluble at an alkaline pH, and has a spectrophotometic absorption peak wave length of 280 mu, a molecular weight of about 10,000, and an amino acid composition approximately as follows:

• ______________________________________ APPROXIMATE NO. OF RESIDUES ______________________________________ Aspartic Acid 9 Threonine 5 Serine 5 Glutamic Acid 13 Proline 4 Glycine 6 Alanine 7 Valine 6 1/2 Cysteine 1 Methionine 2 Isoleucine 4 Leucine 8 Tryosine 3 Phenylalanine 3 Lysine 6 Histidine 2 Arginine 5 89 ______________________________________
• the amino acids cysteic, hydroxyproline, norleucine, ammonia, isodesmosine, lysinonorleucine and gamma-aminobutyric acid being absent in detectable amounts.