A β-tubulin 5-derived peptide induces cytotoxic T lymphocytes restricted to the HLA-A24 allele in prostate cancer patients.

To facilitate the development of a peptide-based cancer vaccine for prostate cancer patients, we examined whether any of the 13 peptides previously reported to induce HLA-class I-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity in HLA-A3 supertype (-A3, -A11, -A31 and -A33)-positive prostate cancer patients are also capable of inducing CTLs restricted to HLA-A2, HLA-A24 or HLA-A26 alleles. Among the 13 peptides tested, a peptide at positions 309 to 318 of β-tubulin 5 exhibited binding activity to the HLA-A(*)2402 molecule and induced HLA-A24-restricted CTL activity against prostate cancer cells derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of prostate cancer patients. The CTL activity was determined to be specific to this peptide and was mediated by CD8(+) T cells in an HLA-class I-restricted manner. These results suggest that this peptide could be applicable as a peptide vaccine, not only for HLA-A3 supertype-positive, but also for HLA-A24-positive prostate cancer patients.