Cancer Immunity 3:17 (2003)

A new tumor-specific antigenic peptide encoded by MAGE-6 is presented to cytolytic T lymphocytes by HLA-Cw16

Valérie Vantomme^*, Pascale Boël, Etienne De Plaen, Thierry Boon, and Pierre van der Bruggen

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, 74 avenue Hippocrate, UCL 7459, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
^*Current address: GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, 89 rue de l'Industrie, B-1330 Rixensart, Belgium

Keywords: human, melanoma, T lymphocyte epitopes, MAGE-6, HLA-Cw16

Abstract

"Cancer-germline" genes such as those of the MAGE family are expressed in many tumors and in male germline cells, but are silent in normal tissues. They encode shared tumor-specific antigens, which have been used in therapeutic vaccination trials of cancer patients. MAGE-6 is expressed in more than 70% of metastatic melanomas and more than 50% of carcinomas of the lung, esophagus, bladder, and head and neck. We report here the identification of a new MAGE-6 antigenic peptide, which is recognized by a tumor-specific cytolytic T lymphocyte clone isolated from a melanoma patient. The peptide, ISGGPRISY, corresponds to positions 293 to 301 of the MAGE-6 protein sequence and is presented by HLA-Cw1601 molecules.