Ring finger protein 43 as a new target for cancer immunotherapy

Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Dec 15;10(24):8577-86. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-04-0104.

Abstract

We have performed genome-wide exploration by using cDNA microarray profiling, and successfully identified a new tumor-associated antigen (TAA) that can induce potent cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific to tumor cells. In our preceding study, we identified multiple new genes by using gene expression profiling with a genome-wide cDNA microarray containing 23,040 genes. Among them, we selected RNF43 (ring finger protein 43) as a promising candidate for a TAA expressed by colon cancer cells. In this study, we examined whether the RNF43 protein contains antigenic epitope peptides restricted to HLA-A*0201 or HLA-A*2402. The CTL clones were successfully induced with stimulation by using the peptides binding to HLA-A*0201 (ALWPWLLMA and ALWPWLLMAT) and HLA-A*2402 (NSQPVWLCL), and these CTL clones showed the cytotoxic activity specific to not only the peptide-pulsed targets but also the tumor cells expressing RNF43 and respective HLAs. Lytic activities mediated by two HLA-A2-restricted epitopes were marginal, whereas tumor lysis mediated by the HLA-A24 epitope was clearly better. These findings might be caused by the poor natural presentation of RNF43-11(IX) and RNF43-11(X) by tumors or poor T-cell receptor avidity for these specific epitopes. These results strongly suggest that RNF43 is a new TAA of colon cancer. Furthermore, these results also suggest that our strategy might be a promising one to efficiently discover clinically useful TAAs.

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Neoplasm / immunology*
  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • B-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • B-Lymphocytes / pathology
  • Colonic Neoplasms / immunology
  • Colonic Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Epitopes / immunology
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • HLA-A Antigens / immunology*
  • HLA-A2 Antigen
  • HLA-A24 Antigen
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy*
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Peptide Fragments / immunology
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / metabolism
  • Repressor Proteins / immunology*
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / immunology*
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
  • Zinc Fingers

Substances

  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • Epitopes
  • HLA-A Antigens
  • HLA-A*02:01 antigen
  • HLA-A*24:02 antigen
  • HLA-A2 Antigen
  • HLA-A24 Antigen
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
  • Repressor Proteins
  • RLIM protein, human
  • Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases