Open AccessImmune Responses to the Cancer Testis Antigen XAGE-1b in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer Caucasian Patients
Author(s) -
Kanako Saito,
Eiichi Nakayama,
Danila Valmori
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0150623
Subject(s) - immunotherapy , immunogenicity , antigen , epitope , medicine , lung cancer , immunology , immune system , adenocarcinoma , population , cancer , t cell , oncology , cancer research , environmental health
Immunotherapy approaches using checkpoint blockade, alone, or in combination with tumor antigen vaccination, or adoptive cell transfer, are emerging as promising approaches for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In preparation for upcoming combined immunotherapy approaches in NSCLC, here, we have assessed spontaneous immune responses to XAGE-1b, a tumor specific antigen of the Cancer Testis Antigen group that has been previously reported to be spontaneously immunogenic in the Japanese population, in a cohort of Caucasian patients with NSCLC. We found spontaneous serological responses to XAGE-1b in 9% of the patients. Importantly, these responses were limited to, and represented 13% of, patients with adenocarcinoma tumors, the most frequent histological subtype, for which immunotherapy approaches are under development. Using a set of overlapping peptides spanning the entire XAGE-1b protein, and in support of the serological data, we detected significant XAGE-1b specific CD4 + T cell responses in all XAGE-1b seropositive patients and identified several CD4 + T cell epitopes. Altogether, our results support the relevance of the XAGE-1b antigen in Caucasians NSCLC patients with adenocarcinoma, and the implementation of future immunotherapies exploiting the high immunogenicity of the antigen in this patient population.