根据4月15日Cancer Research期刊中的最新报导指出，美国费城威斯达研究所（Wistar Institute）的研究者发展出一种新的抗原复制技术，成功识别出一个新的肿瘤抗原核糖体蛋白L8（ribosomal protein L8；RPL8）。
近年来，学者专家们渐渐着手开发肿瘤疫苗作为治疗癌症的方式。不同于一般「疫苗」的概念，肿瘤疫苗并非用来「预防」癌症，而是利用增强免疫反应，来歼灭已经存在的肿瘤。
与传统治疗癌症方法相比，肿瘤疫苗具有较低的毒性与较高的效能。然而，至今仅针对活化T辅助细胞（T helper cell，THL）的疫苗有较佳的成效。「先前类似的黑色素瘤疫苗多为活化杀手T细胞（cytotoxic T-lymphocytes，CTL），」威斯达研究所分生与免疫学教授Dorothee Herlyn博士表示：「我们的方法所分离到的RPL8疫苗则是对于活化CTL与THL两者兼具。」
核糖体蛋白L8是常见于各个细胞中、合成蛋白质必要的酵素，唯在黑色素瘤、乳癌与脑癌中有高度表现。Herlyn博士指出，这项新的方式是利用噬菌体来携带抗原感染B细胞后，藉由B细胞的抗原呈现机制，能够更直接而长效的活化免疫系统。「我们也会朝向乳癌和脑癌疫苗方向努力开发，以期早日能够有效治疗这些癌症。」她说。
(资料来源 : bio)
原始出处:
Cancer Research 67, 3555-3559, April 15, 2007. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-2763
Priority Reports
Shared MHC Class II–Dependent Melanoma Ribosomal Protein L8 Identified by Phage Display
Rolf K. Swoboda1, Rajasekharan Somasundaram1, Laura Caputo1, Elizabeth M. Ochoa1, Phyllis A. Gimotty2, Francesco M. Marincola7, Patricia Van Belle4, Stephen Barth4, David Elder3,4, DuPont Guerry3,5, Brian Czerniecki3,6, Lynn Schuchter3,5, Robert H. Vonderheide3 and Dorothee Herlyn1
1 The Wistar Institute; 2 Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics and 3 Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania; Departments of 4 Pathology, 5 Medicine, and 6 Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 7 Department of Transfusion Medicine Clinical Center, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland
Requests for reprints: Dorothee Herlyn, Immunology Program, The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Phone: 215-898-3962; Fax: 215-898-0980; E-mail: dherlyn@wistar.org .
Antigens recognized by T helper (Th) cells in the context of MHC class II molecules have vaccine potential against cancer and infectious agents. We have described previously a melanoma patient's HLA-DR7–restricted Th cell clone recognizing an antigen, which is shared among melanoma and glioma cells derived from various patients. Here, this antigen was cloned using a novel antigen phage display approach. The antigen was identified as the ribosomal protein L8 (RPL8). A peptide of RPL8 significantly stimulated proliferation and/or cytokine expression of the Th cell clone and lymphocytes in four of nine HLA-DR7+ melanoma patients but not in healthy volunteers. The RPL8 antigen may represent a relevant vaccine target for patients with melanoma, glioma, and breast carcinoma whose tumors express this protein. [Cancer Res 2007;67(8):3555–9]
