• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7703-7705
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• 2014

Cancer-testis (CT) antigens are a group of tumor-associated antigens with restricted expression in normal tissues except for testis and expression in a wide variety of tumor tissues. This pattern of expression makes them suitable targets for immunotherapy as well as potential biomarkers for early detection of cancer. However, some genes attributed to this family are now known to be expressed in other normal tissues which put their potential applications in immunotherapy and cancer detection under question. Here we analyzed expression of two previously known CT antigens, RHOXF2 and PIWIL2, in AML patients versus normal donors and found no significant difference in the expression of these genes between the two groups. As these two genes showed expression in normal leukocytes, their expression pattern seems to be wider than to be attributed to the CT gene family. Future research should focus on the expression profiles of so called CT antigens to find those with more testis specific expression.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.3079-3081
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• 2015

Cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) are a group of tumor associated antigens with a restricted expression pattern in normal gametogenic tissues but expression in a broad range of malignancies. Their expression pattern has made them potential targets for immunotherapy. However, expression of some of these antigens has been demonstrated in normal stem cells as well as cancer stem cells (CSCs). As CSCs have been shown to be sources of metastasis and tumor recurrence, novel therapies are being focused on their eradication. On the other hand, CTA expression in normal stem cells raises the possibility that CTA based immunotherapies cause side effects in normal tissues.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4623-4628
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• 2015

Breast cancer still remains as the most frequent cancer with second mortality rate in women worldwide. There are no validated biomarkers for detection of the disease in early stages with effective power in diagnosis and therapeutic approaches. Cancer/testis antigens are recently promising tumor antigens and suitable candidates for targeted therapies and generating cancer vaccines. We conducted the present study to analyze transcript changes of two cancer/testis antigens, OIP5 and TAF7L, in breast tumors and cell lines in comparison with normal breast tissues by quantitative real time RT-PCR for the first time. Significant over-expression of OIP5 was observed in breast tumors and three out of six cell lines including MDA-MB-468, T47D and SKBR3. Not significant expression of TAF7L was evident in breast tumors but significant increase was noted in three out of six cell lines including MDA-MB-231, BT474 and T47D. OIP5 has ssignificant role in chromatin organization and cell cycle control during cell cycle exit and normal chromosome segregation during mitosis and TAF7L is a component of the transcription factor IID, which is involved in transcription initiation of most protein coding genes. TAF7Lis located at X chromosome and belongs to the CT-X gene family of cancer/testis antigens which contains about 50% of CT antigens, including those which have been used in cancer immunotherapy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.912-922
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• 2011

Cancer-testis (CT) antigens are immunogenic protein antigens with restricted expression in the testes and a wide range of human tumor types, eliciting both humoral and cellular immune responses in cancer patients. They are considered to be ideal targets for vaccine-based immunotherapy, and more than 100 CT antigens, including MAGE, NY-ESO-1, GAGE, BAGE, LAGE, SSX2 and NY-SAR-35 have been identified to date. The CT antigens were identified through various techniques and can be divided in those that are encoded on the X chromosome, the CT-X genes, and those that are not, the non-X-CT genes. CT genes are aberrantly activated and expressed in a proportion of various types of human cancers. The biological role of CT-X in both germ line tissues and tumors remains poorly understood. Cancer vaccine trials based on several CT antigens are currently ongoing. This paper reviews recent advances in and future trends of CT antigens for cancer immunotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5149-5152
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• 2015

Cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) are a group of tumor-associated antigens with more than 140 members whose expression has been shown to be limited to gametogenic tissues and placenta among normal tissues. However, malignant tissues of different origins have shown aberrant and elevated expression of these antigens. Such a pattern of expression endows beneficial properties for use as cancer biomarkers as well as immunotherapeutic targets as a result of the immune-privileged status of the testes. CTAs have been shown to be expressed in pediatric brain tumors, different types of sarcomas, leukemias, and lymphomas as well as neuroblastomas. Although data regarding their expression pattern in childhood tumors are not as comprehensive as for adult tumors, it is supposed that CTA-based immunotherapeutic approaches can also be used for pediatric cancers. However, there are limited data about the objective clinical responses following immunotherapy in such patients. Here we try to review the available information.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.8 s.88
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• pp.1082-1089
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• 2007

Serological anlysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries (SEREX) has led to identification of several categories of new antigens recognized by the immune system of cancer patients, which are referred to as the cancer immunome. We analyzed normal testis cDNA expression libraries with serumobtained from non-small lung cancer patient and isolated 40 distinct antigen designated KP-LuT-1 through KP-LuT-40. Among these antigens 20 antigens were previously identified by SEREX analysis of other tumor types, and 20 out of 40 antigens (50%) did not match entries in Cancer Immunome Database and were considered newly identified antigens. Sequencing analysis showed that the anti-gens comprised 26 functional known proteins and 14 noble/uncharacterized gene products. Of these, the hypothetical protein KP-LuT-6 was shown tissue-restricted. RT-PCR showed it to be expressed strongly only in normal testis. In addition to normal tissues-restricted expression, KP-LuT-6 mRNA was detected in lung tumor samples(3/l0), stomach tumor samples(3/l0), and breast tumor samples(l/5), whereas not detected in colon tumor samples(O/I2). These data suggest that KP-LuT-6 is a cancer/testis (CT)-like antigen as a potential target for cancer immunotherapies.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.886-891
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• 2009

Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are immunogenic in cancer patients, exhibit highly tissue-restricted expression, and are considered promising target molecules for cancer vaccines. We investigated the expression of 13 CT genes in 29 Korean patients with primary breast carcinoma. The most frequently expressed CT genes were MAGE-3 (66%) and MAGE-1 (57%), followed by LAGE-1 (55%), NY-SAR-35 (49%), MAGE-4 (41%), NY-ESO-1 (38%), CT-7 (24%) and SSX-4 (24%), whereas SSX-1, SSX-2, MAGE-10 and NY-TLU-57 were found to be expressed significantly less often (3-7%) and SCP-l not all. Expression of at least one antigen was observed in 28 breast cancer samples. Immunohistochemistry was performed for NY-ESO-l and MAGE-3 protein expression in breast tumor samples. NY-ESO-l and MAGE-3 proteins were expressed in 11 of 29 (38%) and 12 of 29 (41 %) breast tumors. Our results suggest that CT antigens may be potential candidates for polyvalent immunotherapy in Korean breast cancer patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.841-846
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• 2007

The identification of tumor antigens is essential for the development of anticancer therapeutic vaccines and clinical diagnosis of cancer. SEREX (serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression library)has been used to identify such tumor antigens by screening sera of cancer patients with cDNA ex-pression libraries. SEREX-defined antigens provide markers for the diagnosis of cancers. SEREX is also a powerful method for the development of anticancer therapeutics. The development of anticancer vaccines requires that tumor antigens can elicit antigen-specific antibodies or T lymphocytes. This re-view provides information on the application of SEREX for discovery of tumor antigens.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.4255-4259
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• 2014

Lactobacilli are probiotics shown to have antitumor activities. In addition, they can regulate gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms. In this study, we aimed to assess anti tumor activities of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus crispatus on the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. The effects of culture supernatants were determined by MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-y-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. Changes in expression of 5 cancer-testis antigens (CTAs), namely AKAP4, ODF4, PIWIL2, RHOXF2 and TSGA10, were analyzed by quantitative real time RT-PCR. The culture supernatants of the 2 lactobacilli inhibited MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation. In addition, transcriptional activity of all mentioned CTAs except AKAP4 was significantly decreased after 24 hour treatment with culture supernatants. This study shows that Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus crispatus have antiproliferative activity against MDA-MB-231 cells. In addition, these lactobacilli could decrease transcriptional activity of 4 CTAs. Previous studies have shown that expression of CTAs is epigenetically regulated, so it is possible that lactobacilli cause this expression downregulation through epigenetic mechanisms. As expression of CTAs in cancers is usually associated with higher grades and poor prognosis, downregulation of their expression by lactobacilli may have clinical implications.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.5 no.3 s.19
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• pp.180-185
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• 2005

Purpose: Among tumor-associated antigens, MAGE (melanoma antigen) was named as cancer/testis specific antigens because they are detected exclusively in the testis or cancer cells, including gastric carcinomas. Due to the elicitation of autoimmunitiy to tumors by these antigens either in vitro or in vivo and their tumor specificity, these antigens, thus, appear to be potential targets for tumor-specific immunotherapy. Materials and Methods: The fresh tumor tissue and normal gastric tissue samples were obtained from resected surgical specimens in 53 patients with gastric carcinomas. From the obtained cells, total cellular mRNA was extracted, and RT-PCR and nested PCR were run in 30 and 35 cycles respectively, with two different kinds of primers specially designed to detect six subtypes of MAGE DNA simultaneously. Results: In the 53 normal tissue, there was no expression of MAGE, but in the 53 cancer tissues, MAGE was expressed in 13 tissues (24.5%). Our data did not exhibit any correlation with the expression of the MAGE gene and clinicopathological factors. Conclusion: In our data, since 24.5% of gastric cancer tissues expressed MAGE, it should become possible to immunize a significant proportion of patients with advanced gastric carcinomas against the antigens encoded by these genes, provided that more antigenic peptides encoded by the genes of the MAGE family can be identified in the near future. (J Korean Gastric Cancer Assoc 2005;5:180-185)