A chimeric protein was obtained by fusing together the ricin toxin A chain (RTA) gene and a DNA fragment encoding the N terminus of protein G of the vesicular stomatitis virus. Chimeric RTA (cRTA) retained full enzymic activity in a cell-free assay, but was 10-fold less toxic against human leukemic cells than either native RTA (nRTA) or unmodified recombinant RTA (rRTA). However, conjugates made with cRTA and human transferrin (Tfn) showed 10 -20-fold greater cell killing efficacy than Tfn-nRTA or Tfn-rRTA conjugates despite equivalent binding of the three conjugates to target tumor cells. As a consequence, by fusion of the KFT25 peptide to the RTA sequence, the specificity factor (i.e. the ratio between nonspecific and specific cytotoxicity) of Tfn-cRTA was increased 90 -240 times with respect to those of Tfn-nRTA and Tfn-rRTA. cRTA interacted with phospholipid vesicles with 15-fold faster kinetics than nRTA at acidic pH. Taken together, our results suggest that the ability of vesicular stomatitis virus protein G to interact with cell membranes can be transferred to RTA to facilitate its translocation to the cell cytosol. Our strategy may serve as a general approach for potentiating the cytotoxic efficacy of antitumor immunotoxins.Cell-surface structures mediating the efficient internalization of cell-bound molecules are frequently selected as targets of monoclonal antibody/ligand-toxin conjugates (immunotoxins (IT) 1 ) (1). Rapid internalization, however, is not always synonymous with fast intoxication rates of the target cells as a result of cell mechanisms leading to inactivation of the internalized IT molecules (e.g. recycling, degradation, slow routing to subcellular compartments competent for toxin translocation) (1). The ricin toxin A chain (RTA) is a potent ribosome-inactivating enzyme used in the synthesis of highly selective IT. However, RTA-based IT exert their effect at relatively high concentrations due to poor translocation of RTA to the cell cytosol from the endocytic compartments where the IT are internalized (1).Viruses utilize specialized envelope structures that allow them to enter the cytosol of the infected cells. We reasoned that it might be possible to modify a cytotoxic enzyme (i.e. RTA) by fusing it to a protein structure derived from viral envelopes, thus conferring to the cytotoxic enzyme the cytosol targeting properties of the virus. A peptide representing the primary sequence of the 25 N-terminal amino acids of protein G of the vesicular stomatitis virus envelope (KFT25) was found to have pH-dependent membrane destabilizing properties (2, 3). In particular, at low pH, KFT25 was shown to be hemolytic, to mediate hemagglutination, to be cytotoxic for mammalian cells, and to effect gross changes in cell permeability (2, 3). Such a virus-derived structure might be endowed with the ability to facilitate the translocation of heterologous proteins across cell membranes when they are routed to acidic intracellular compartments.The transferrin receptor is a cell-surface structure known to de...