Dubovsky Jason A, Albertini Mark R, McNeel Douglas G
University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, Madison, WI, USA.
J Immunother. 2007 Oct;30(7):675-83. doi: 10.1097/CJI.0b013e3180de4d19.
One focus in the field of tumor immunology is the identification of cancer-specific antigens that might be exploited as therapeutic targets or as immunologic diagnostic markers. Cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) are of particular interest as potential target antigens given that their expression is typically restricted to germ cells among normal tissues, but aberrantly expressed in multiple tumor types. In the current report, we sought to evaluate serum antibody immune responses to a defined panel of CTA from multiple antigen families to identify potential tumor-specific antigens that could potentially serve as candidate target antigens for immunotherapy or diagnostic purposes. This was conducted by screening sera from male patients with metastatic melanoma (n=44) and volunteer blood donors (n=50) against a panel of lambda phage-encoded CTA. We found that IgG antibody responses occurred in 39% of patients with melanoma to at least one of these antigens compared with 4% of controls (P<0.001). We found antibody responses to one antigen, MAD-CT-2, occurred in 27% of patients compared with 0/50 controls (P<0.0001). These findings, along with the demonstration that MAD-CT-2 is expressed in melanoma cell lines, identified MAD-CT-2 as a novel melanoma CTA.
肿瘤免疫学领域的一个研究重点是鉴定癌症特异性抗原，这些抗原可被用作治疗靶点或免疫诊断标志物。癌胚抗原（CTA）作为潜在的靶抗原尤其受到关注，因为它们的表达通常在正常组织中仅限于生殖细胞，但在多种肿瘤类型中异常表达。在本报告中，我们试图评估针对来自多个抗原家族的一组特定CTA的血清抗体免疫反应，以鉴定潜在的肿瘤特异性抗原，这些抗原可能作为免疫治疗或诊断目的的候选靶抗原。这是通过筛选转移性黑色素瘤男性患者（n = 44）和志愿献血者（n = 50）的血清，使其与一组λ噬菌体编码的CTA进行反应来进行的。我们发现，39%的黑色素瘤患者对这些抗原中的至少一种产生了IgG抗体反应，而对照组为4%（P < 0.001）。我们发现，27%的患者对一种抗原MAD-CT-2产生了抗体反应，而对照组为0/50（P < 0.0001）。这些发现，以及MAD-CT-2在黑色素瘤细胞系中表达的证明，确定MAD-CT-2为一种新型的黑色素瘤CTA。
