title: Mass spectrometry-based antigen discovery for cancer immunotherapy.
abstract: The antigenic landscape of tumors is distinct from healthy cells and has been the rationale behind a variety of vaccination trials. Typically the target tumor-associated antigens have been of self origin and have rarely induced effective anti-tumor responses. Recent data show that activation of the immune system by immune checkpoint blocking therapies leads to tumor rejection and that recognition of mutated antigens, known as 'neo-antigens' plays a key role. Discovery of neo-antigens relies mainly on prediction-based interrogation of the 'mutanome' using genomic information as input, followed by T-cell screening. Recent breakthroughs in mass spectrometry (MS) based immunopeptidomics have allowed the discovery of very large pools of naturally presented peptides, among them neo-epitopes. This review highlights the current progress related to neo-antigens discovery with emphasis on prediction algorithms and MS as well as the synergy of the two methodologies and how they can be exploited to develop effective personalized immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne Branch & Department of Oncology, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: michal.bassani@chuv.ch.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bassani-Sternberg
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Lausanne Branch & Department of Oncology, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coukos
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm