Abstract
'Cancer-germline' genes such as those of the MAGE family are expressed in many tumors and in male germline cells, but are silent in normal tissues. They encode shared tumor-specific antigens, which have been used in therapeutic vaccination trials of cancer patients. MAGE-A4 is expressed in more than 50% of carcinomas of esophagus, head and neck, lung, and bladder. We report here the identification of a new MAGE-A4 encoded peptide, which is recognized by a cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) clone on HLA-B*3701. The sequence of the peptide is SESLKMIF. It corresponds to the MAGE-A4156-163 protein sequence. When tumor cells expressing MAGE-A4 were transfected with HLA-B*3701, they were recognized by the CTL clone, demonstrating that the peptide ought to be processed in tumor cells and could therefore serve as a target for therapeutic antitumoral vaccination.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 365-371 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Tissue Antigens |
Volume | 60 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 1 2002 |
Keywords
- Antigenic peptide
- CTL
- HLA-B37
- MAGE-A4
- Tumor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cell Biology
- Immunology