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Identification of a sperm protein 17 CTL epitope restricted by HLA‐A1
Author(s) -
ChirivaInternati Maurizio,
Wang Zhiqing,
Pochopien Stephanie,
Salati Emanuela,
Lim Seah H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.11486
Subject(s) - epitope , ctl* , sperm , identification (biology) , biology , human leukocyte antigen , immunology , computational biology , genetics , antigen , cd8 , botany
Sperm protein 17 (Sp17) is a novel cancer‐testis antigen. We previously reported the successful generation of Sp17‐specific HLA‐A1‐restricted cytotoxic T‐lymphocytes (CTLs) from the peripheral blood of a healthy donor using a recombinant Sp17 protein. These CTLs were able to kill not only target cells pulsed with the recombinant protein but also fresh Sp17 + tumor cells. In the present study, we have identified a nonapeptide sequence within the Sp17 protein that is predicted to have a high binding affinity for the HLA‐A1 molecules. We generated the synthetic nonapeptide and successfully propagated a peptide‐specific CTL line. We confirmed that peptide Sp17 103–111 (ILDSSEEDK) contains an Sp17 CTL epitope restricted by HLA‐A1 and identified amino acid residues 104, 107, 109 and 110 as crucial for the CTL lysis. Our findings therefore provide the tool for the characterization of CD8 T‐cell function in vivo and generation of epitope‐specific treatment strategies. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.