Melanoma-specific Antigen-associated Antitumor Antibody Reactivity As an Immune-related Biomarker for Targeted Immunotherapies

Overview

Journal Commun Med (Lond)

Publisher Nature Portfolio

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 May 23

PMID 35603273

Authors

Annika Rahni

Mariliis Jaago

Helle Sadam

Nadezda Pupina

Arno Pihlak

Jurgen Tuvikene

Margus Annuk

Andrus Magi

Tonis Timmusk

Amir M Ghaemmaghami

Kaia Palm

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Immunotherapies, including cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the management of many cancers. However, a large number of patients show resistance to these immunotherapies and current research has provided limited findings for predicting response to precision immunotherapy treatments.

Methods: Here, we applied the next generation phage display mimotope variation analysis (MVA) to profile antibody response and dissect the role of humoral immunity in targeted cancer therapies, namely anti-tumor dendritic cell vaccine (MelCancerVac) and immunotherapy with anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies (pembrolizumab).

Results: Analysis of the antibody immune response led to the characterization of epitopes that were linked to melanoma-associated and cancer-testis antigens (CTA) whose antibody response was induced upon MelCancerVac® treatments of lung cancer. Several of these epitopes aligned to antigens with strong immune response in patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma receiving anti-PD-1 therapy.

Conclusions: This study provides insights into the differences and similarities in tumor-specific immunogenicity related to targeted immune treatments. The antibody epitopes as biomarkers reflect melanoma-associated features of immune response, and also provide insights into the molecular pathways contributing to the pathogenesis of cancer. Concluding, antibody epitope response can be useful in predicting anti-cancer immunity elicited by immunotherapy.

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