Identification of CTL epitopes presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on tumour cells is vital for the design of active immunotherapy. Many antigens have been identified so far by utilising well characterized approaches

already utilised for other tumours. These approaches AG-881 manufacturer are: A peptide-elution approach involving the biochemical elution of peptides from the binding cleft of tumour HLA molecules, and pulsing these peptides onto APC to test their ability to sensitize target cells for lysis by specific antitumour lymphocytes. A reverse immunology approach predicting possible antigenic peptide sequences from oncogenes or tumour-associate proteins using known HLA-anchor motifs, followed by an in vitro investigation of the ability of the predicted synthetic peptides to stimulate T lymphocytes. A serological approach involving the identification of antigens by recombinant expression cloning (SEREX) [2]. SEREX was developed to combine serological analysis with antigen cloning techniques to identify human tumour antigens eliciting autologous

high-titer immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody LY3039478 purchase responses. A genetic approach involving two different methods: i) the transfection of cDNA libraries from tumour cells into target cells expressing the appropriate human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule, and then screening transfected cells for stimulating CD8+ T-cell clones from cancer patients; ii) the microarray analyses facilitating the individuation of differential highly expressed genes in HN primary tumour samples [3]. The TAAs that have been described in HNSCC cells are derived from a broad spectrum of intracellular proteins and have bee exhaustively reported in other reviews [3–5]. In principle a complete arrays of TAA antigens can be obtained by immunizing with a heterogeneous mixture of tumour antigens, using irradiated tumour cells themselves or tumour-derived materials such as tumour cell lysates or apoptotic

(killed) tumour cells as substrates for generating antitumour immune responses. This approach Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II failed to be effective for many reasons and, mostly, for the clear Epoxomicin datasheet hurdle represented by the reliance on the proper internalization, processing and antigen presentation by immune cells in which these machineries are already altered in tumour-bearing patients. In a single patient a particular TAA, not broadly shared among other HNSCC patients, may be detected but the procedures are so laborious to render this approach impractical in clinical application of vaccines. Significant advances in molecular genetic technology are facilitating the identification of numerous TSAs in head and neck cancer, which try to meet some criteria of an ideal TAA.