Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:1.10.3.1 (tyrosinase)
 9,065 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The role of tumor-specific T cells in mediating the regression of metastatic melanoma has been suggested by the clinical response of patients to treatment with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). A number of Ags recognized by class I-restricted melanoma-specific T cells have recently been isolated, raising the hope that this will lead to the development of improved therapies. In this study, we report the cloning of a tumor Ag recognized by T cells from melanoma patient 888. Previously, we reported that TIL 888, grown from the tumor of this patient, recognized tyrosinase in an HLA-A24-restricted fashion. This line, when infused into the autologous patient, resulted in complete regression of multiple metastases. Three years later, a second TIL line, TIL 1290, was isolated from a recurrent pelvic tumor. Infusion of a mixture of TIL 888 and TIL 1290 cell lines into the patient resulted in complete regression of a residual abdominal mass and the patient remains disease-free 2 yr later. The TIL 1290 cell line, which recognized melanoma in an HLA-A24-restricted manner, failed to recognize tyrosinase. TIL 1290 was then used to screen an 888 melanoma cDNA library, and an Ag was isolated that did not correspond to any found in sequence databases. This gene, termed p15, was found to be expressed in a variety of normal tissues, and a peptide epitope recognized by TIL 1290 was found to represent the product of an nonmutated gene. Screening of additional cDNA pools resulted in the isolation of a second clone which stimulated TIL 1290. This clone also appeared to represent a transcript of the p15 gene, indicating that this gene may encode the predominant Ag recognized by TIL 1290.
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PMID:Cloning of a new gene encoding an antigen recognized by melanoma-specific HLA-A24-restricted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. 775 37

Human melanoma antigens and their epitopes recognized by T cells have been identified using a variety of methods. These antigens are classified as 1) melanocyte specific melanosomal proteins (MART-1, gp100, tyrosinase and TRP-1), 2) proteins expressed in testis and a variety of cancers (MAGE-1, MAGE-3, BAGE and GAGE), 3) tumor specific mutated proteins (beta-catenin, MUM-1 and CDK4), and 4) others (p15). Some of the HLA-A2 binding non-mutated melanoma epitopes contained non-dominant anchor amino acids and have relatively low HLA-A2 binding affinity, suggesting that these epitopes were likely to be subdominant or cryptic self determinants. The significant correlation observed between vitiligo development and IL2 based immunotherapy suggested that autoreactive T cells specific for these self peptides were involved in melanoma regression in vivo. In addition, since adoptive transfer into patients of CTL recognizing these epitopes resulted in tumor regression, these epitopes may be tumor rejection antigens. Melanoma reactive CTL were efficiently induced from PBL of patients by in vitro stimulation with PBMC pulsed with these melanoma epitopes and may be useful in adoptive transfer protocols for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. An immunization trial using the MART-1 and gp100 peptides in conjunction with incomplete Freund's adjuvant is in progress. These identified antigens may be useful for the development of new immunotherapies for the treatment of melanoma patients as well as for understanding the mechanisms of anti-tumor immune responses and autoimmune disorders against melanocytes.
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PMID:Human melanoma antigens recognized by T lymphocytes. 868 99

During the last 6 years significant progress has been achieved in the identification of melanoma-associated antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. These antigens belong the three main groups: tumor-associated testis-specific antigens (MAGE, BAGE, GAGE and PRAME), melanocyte differentiation antigens (tyrosinase, Melan-A/MART-1, gp100, TRP-1 and TRP-2) and mutated or aberrantly expressed antigens (MUM-1, CDK4, beta-catenin, gp100-in4, p15 and N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V). In this review, we have summarized the available data concerning the characterization of melanoma-associated antigens with focus on their immunogenic and protective properties. The development of a strong immune response against differentiation antigens is limited by the existence of tolerance against these 'self' antigens, permitting the involvement of only T cells with low affinity T cell receptors. Among the melanoma differentiation antigens, only gp100 has been shown to be a tumor regression antigen. The testis-specific antigens such as MAGE and PRAME should potentially be highly immunogenic antigens. They contain several potential HLA class I binding epitopes and are present only in the testes which are not accessible to the cells of the immune system due to the lack of direct contact with the immune cells and the lack of HLA class I expression on the surface of germ cells. But only 2 patients have been found who responded to these antigens in vivo, indicating their genuinely low immunogenicity. A comparison of the predicted secondary structures of these two groups of antigens (testis-specific and differentiation antigens) revealed enrichment of long alpha-helical stretches in the testis-specific antigens. We hypothesize that such highly organized structures could diminish the efficiency of the protein unfolding--a necessary step in the proteolytic cleavage by proteasomes--and, therefore, could be responsible for the low immunogenicity of these proteins. In this case, modifications decreasing the stability of these proteins might be a means to improve the immune response against these potentially therapeutically useful antigens.
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PMID:The immunogenic properties of melanoma-associated antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. 961 97

Clinical observations in the interleukin (IL) 2-based immunotherapies suggest that T cells play a central role in the rejection of melanoma. Using cDNA expression cloning, we have isolated genes encoding melanoma antigens recognized by tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes. These antigens are categorized as (a) melanocyte-specific melanosomal proteins (MART-1/melan A, gp100, tyrosinase, TRP-1, and TRP-2), (b) tumor-specific mutated proteins (beta-catenin), and (c) others (p15). A variety of mechanisms has been identified for the generation of T cell epitopes on tumor cells. Some of the HLA-A2 binding epitopes from the melanosomal antigens appear to be subdominant self-determinants with relatively low major histocompatibility complex binding affinity. The effectiveness of adoptive transfer into patients of cytotoxic T lymphocytes recognizing the melanosomal antigens, the significant correlation between vitiligo development and clinical response in patients receiving IL-2-based immunotherapies, and the sporadic tumor regressions observed in some patients following immunization with the MART-1 or gp100 peptides in incomplete Freund's adjuvant or recombinant viruses expressing the MART-1 antigen suggest that these epitopes may represent tumor rejection antigens. Phase I immunization trials using peptides or recombinant viruses containing genes encoding the melanosomal antigens MART-1 or gp100, with or without co-administration of cytokines such as IL-2, IL-12, or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, are being conducted in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute. These studies may demonstrate the feasibility of using melanosomal proteins for the immunotherapy of patients with melanoma.
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PMID:The use of melanosomal proteins in the immunotherapy of melanoma. 967 45

During the last 7 years significant progress has been made in the identification of melanoma-associated antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). These antigens belong to three main groups: cancer/testis-specific antigens (MAGE, BAGE, GAGE, PRAME and NY-ESO-1), melanocyte differentiation antigens (tyrosinase, Melan-A/MART-1, gp100, TRP-1 and TRP-2), and mutated or aberrantly expressed antigens (MUM-1, CDK4, beta-catenin, gp100-in4, p15 and N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V). In this review we have summarized the available data concerning the characterization of melanoma-associated antigens, focusing on their immunogenic and protective properties. The development of a strong immune response to differentiation antigens is limited by the existence of tolerance to these "self"-antigens, permitting the involvement of only T cells with low affinity T-cell receptors. Among the melanoma differentiation antigens, only gp100 has been shown to be a tumor regression antigen. The cancer/testis-specific antigens such as MAGE and PRAME should potentially be highly immunogenic antigens. They contain several potential HLA class I binding epitopes and are present only in the testes, which are not accessible to the cells of the immune system owing to the lack of direct contact with the immune cells and the lack of HLA class I expression on the surface of germ cells. But only two patients have been found who responded to these antigens in vivo, indicating their genuinely low immunogenicity. A comparison of the predicted secondary structures of these two groups of antigens (cancer/testis-specific and differentiation antigens) revealed enrichment of long alpha-helical stretches in the cancer/testis-specific antigens. We hypothesize that such highly organized stable structures could, first, reduce denaturation of the protein and, thus, ubiquitinylation as a degradation signal, and, second, diminish the efficiency of the protein unfolding - a necessary step in the proteolytic cleavage by proteasomes. High structural stability could therefore be responsible for the low immunogenicity of these proteins. In this case, modifications decreasing the stability of these proteins might be a means of improving the immune response to these potentially therapeutically useful antigens.
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PMID:Melanoma-associated antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. 974 May 4

During the last years significant progress has been achieved in the identification of melanoma-associated antigens (MAA) recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). These antigens belong to three main groups: tumor-associated testis-specific antigens (MAGE, BAGE, GAGE and PRAME), melanocyte differentiation antigens (tyrosinase, Melan-A/MART-1, gp100, TRP-1 and TRP-2) and mutated or aberrantly expressed antigens (MUM-1, CDK4, beta-catenin, gp100-in4, p15 and N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase V). For the identification of these antigens, CTL cultures from mainly only 4 different melanoma patients have been used. These patients developed a strong anti-melanoma response resulting in long-lasting disease-free periods, pointing to the importance of the identification of highly immunogenic melanomas. In each of these patients, the immune response was observed against a unique set of 4 to 6 individual antigenic epitopes, on one hand suggesting the low immunogenicity of the individual antigens, and on the other pointing to the importance of the identification of additional highly immunogenic melanomas for the discovery of new MAA. The analysis of the available data on the immunogenic and protective properties of individual MAA confirms their low immunogenicity. In our study, we focused on the identification of especially highly immunogenic melanomas among a panel of 40 newly established melanoma cell lines. So far, only two such melanoma cell lines, FM3 and FM57 have been identified in this panel. The immunogenic properties of uncloned FM3 cells and several FM3 clones have been further investigated. It was found that the immunogenic properties of melanoma cells are mainly determined by the expression of progression-associated antigens as well as by ecto-ATPase, a molecule which is able to modulate cell adhesion. Cloning the cultures of PBL, stimulated with uncloned FM3 or with the highly immunogenic FM3 clone, FM3.29, has permitted us to identify the immune response against eight different MAA, five of these probably representing not previously described antigens. (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 68.)
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PMID:The immunogenic properties of human melanomas and melanoma-associated antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. 981 Jul 66