Higher levels of antibodies to the tumour-associated antigen cyclin B1 in cancer-free individuals than in patients with breast cancer.
Cyclin B1 is a checkpoint protein that regulates cell division from G2 to the M phase. Studies in mice have shown that cyclin B1 vaccine-induced immunity significantly delayed or prevented the spontaneous cancer development later in life. We hypothesized that if these results showing a protective effect of anti-cyclin B1 antibodies could be extrapolated to the human condition, cancer-free individuals should have higher levels of endogenous antibodies than patients with cancers characterized by the over-expression of this tumour-associated antigen. To test this hypothesis, we characterized a large (1739 subjects) number of multi-ethnic patients with breast cancer (which over-expresses cyclin B1) and matched controls for anti-cyclin B1 immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies. Multivariate analyses, after adjusting for the covariates, showed that cancer-free individuals had significantly higher levels of naturally occurring IgG antibodies to cyclin B1 than patients with breast cancer (mean ± standard deviation: 148·0 ± 73·6 versus 126·1 ± 67·8 arbitrary units per ml; P < 0·0001). These findings may have important implications for cyclin B1-based immunotherapy against breast cancer and many other cyclin B1-over-expressing malignancies.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.
J P
JP
Pandey
E
E
Kistner-Griffin
A M
AM
Namboodiri
M
M
Iwasaki
Y
Y
Kasuga
G S
GS
Hamada
S
S
Tsugane
D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D056744:Cyclin B1 / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000276:immunology
D000906:Antibodies; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C534699:CCNB1 protein, human; D056744:Cyclin B1; D007074:Immunoglobulin G
antibodies; breast cancer; cyclin B1; immunosurveillance; tumour-associated antigen