title: Expression of serologically identified tumor antigens in acute leukemias.
abstract: Cancer/testis antigens (CTA) are an expanding family of immunogenic proteins selectively expressed in human neoplasms. As little is known about the expression of serologically identified CTA in leukemias so far, we investigated the expression of 5 CT genes (SSX-1, HOM-MEL-40/SSX-2, HOM-TES-14/SCP-1, SCP-3 and NY-ESO-1) in leukemic blood samples obtained from patients with either acute lymphatic leukemias (ALL) or myelocytic leukemia (AML). RT-PCR-analyses showed no expression of any of the CT-genes in the leukemia samples of 19 patients with AML, whereas frequent expression was found in ALL. In the 17 ALL cases studied, SCP3a, SSX-1, HOM-MEL-40/SXX-2 and HOM-TES-14/SCP-1 were expressed in 47, 29, 29 and 12%, respectively, whereas no case was positive for NY-ESO-1. 65% of patients with ALL showed expression of at least one, 41% of two or more of the five CT-genes investigated. We conclude that a majority of the ALLs might be amenable for specific immunotherapeutic interventions. However, the identification of additional antigens with a frequent expression in leukemias is warranted to allow the development of widely applicable polyvalent leukemia vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Saarland University, D-66424, Saar, Homburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Niemeyer
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Türeci
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eberle
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pfreundschuh
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sahin
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D015973:Gene Expression Regulation, Leukemic / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C104948:CTAG1B protein, human; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C489753:SYCP1 protein, human; C490060:SYCP3 protein, human; C093962:synovial sarcoma X breakpoint proteins