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A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is considered a good target for immunotherapy strategies against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, no immunodominant AFP-derived MHC class II-restricted helper T-lymphocyte (HTL) epitope has been reported. Therefore, we identified novel AFP-derived HTL epitopes possessing...

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Autores principales: Tamai, Toshikatsu, Mizukoshi, Eishiro, Kumagai, Masashi, Terashima, Takeshi, Iida, Noriho, Kitahara, Masaaki, Shimakami, Tetsuro, Kitamura, Kazuya, Arai, Kuniaki, Yamashita, Taro, Sakai, Yoshio, Yamashita, Tatsuya, Honda, Masao, Fushimi, Kazumi, Kaneko, Shuichi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32132566
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60843-4
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author Tamai, Toshikatsu
Mizukoshi, Eishiro
Kumagai, Masashi
Terashima, Takeshi
Iida, Noriho
Kitahara, Masaaki
Shimakami, Tetsuro
Kitamura, Kazuya
Arai, Kuniaki
Yamashita, Taro
Sakai, Yoshio
Yamashita, Tatsuya
Honda, Masao
Fushimi, Kazumi
Kaneko, Shuichi
author_facet Tamai, Toshikatsu
Mizukoshi, Eishiro
Kumagai, Masashi
Terashima, Takeshi
Iida, Noriho
Kitahara, Masaaki
Shimakami, Tetsuro
Kitamura, Kazuya
Arai, Kuniaki
Yamashita, Taro
Sakai, Yoshio
Yamashita, Tatsuya
Honda, Masao
Fushimi, Kazumi
Kaneko, Shuichi
author_sort Tamai, Toshikatsu
collection PubMed
description α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is considered a good target for immunotherapy strategies against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, no immunodominant AFP-derived MHC class II-restricted helper T-lymphocyte (HTL) epitope has been reported. Therefore, we identified novel AFP-derived HTL epitopes possessing high immunogenicity. HTL epitopes were predicted using the online service, and peptides were subsequently synthesized. Four newly synthesized peptides showed positive reactivity in >20% patients on ELISPOT using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Among these, the highest rate was shown by AFP(1) (MKWVESIFLIFLLNFTESRT), which also showed the highest positive rate in cell proliferation assays. Binding assays demonstrated that AFP(1) had strong binding properties toward MHC molecules. Further, blocking assays performed using an anti-HLA-DR antibody showed that immune response decreased, confirming the binding of AFP(1) to HLA-DR molecules. Furthermore, the survival rates of patients with stages II–IV HCC indicated that T cell response against AFP(1) led to significantly greater survival that of patients without T cell response. When evaluating immune response against AFP(1) before and after HCC treatment, an increase in the frequency of peptide-specific T cells was observed after treatment in patients with HLA-DRB1*1502, *0405, and *0901 alleles. In conclusion, the identified epitopes may be useful for immunotherapy strategies against HCC.
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spelling pubmed-70553022020-03-12 A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma Tamai, Toshikatsu Mizukoshi, Eishiro Kumagai, Masashi Terashima, Takeshi Iida, Noriho Kitahara, Masaaki Shimakami, Tetsuro Kitamura, Kazuya Arai, Kuniaki Yamashita, Taro Sakai, Yoshio Yamashita, Tatsuya Honda, Masao Fushimi, Kazumi Kaneko, Shuichi Sci Rep Article α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is considered a good target for immunotherapy strategies against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, no immunodominant AFP-derived MHC class II-restricted helper T-lymphocyte (HTL) epitope has been reported. Therefore, we identified novel AFP-derived HTL epitopes possessing high immunogenicity. HTL epitopes were predicted using the online service, and peptides were subsequently synthesized. Four newly synthesized peptides showed positive reactivity in >20% patients on ELISPOT using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Among these, the highest rate was shown by AFP(1) (MKWVESIFLIFLLNFTESRT), which also showed the highest positive rate in cell proliferation assays. Binding assays demonstrated that AFP(1) had strong binding properties toward MHC molecules. Further, blocking assays performed using an anti-HLA-DR antibody showed that immune response decreased, confirming the binding of AFP(1) to HLA-DR molecules. Furthermore, the survival rates of patients with stages II–IV HCC indicated that T cell response against AFP(1) led to significantly greater survival that of patients without T cell response. When evaluating immune response against AFP(1) before and after HCC treatment, an increase in the frequency of peptide-specific T cells was observed after treatment in patients with HLA-DRB1*1502, *0405, and *0901 alleles. In conclusion, the identified epitopes may be useful for immunotherapy strategies against HCC. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7055302/ /pubmed/32132566 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60843-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Tamai, Toshikatsu
Mizukoshi, Eishiro
Kumagai, Masashi
Terashima, Takeshi
Iida, Noriho
Kitahara, Masaaki
Shimakami, Tetsuro
Kitamura, Kazuya
Arai, Kuniaki
Yamashita, Taro
Sakai, Yoshio
Yamashita, Tatsuya
Honda, Masao
Fushimi, Kazumi
Kaneko, Shuichi
A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title_full A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title_fullStr A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title_full_unstemmed A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title_short A novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
title_sort novel α-fetoprotein-derived helper t-lymphocyte epitope with strong immunogenicity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32132566
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60843-4
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