In this project, I used reverse immunology to identify the peptide HCA661_246-254 as the dominant epitope of HCA661, a newly identified CT antigen presented by HLA molecules in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. HCA661_246-254 was able to generate peptide-specific T cells which recognized HCA66⁺/HLA-A2⁺ cancer cell line HepG2. Results of LDH cytotoxicity and ELISPOT assays confirmed that HCA661_246-254 was able to activate T cells specifically targeting HepG2 cells. Intracellular IFN-γ secretion assay further confirmed the targeting activity of HCA661_246-254-specific T cells. The results of this study indicate that HCA661_246-254 is the most frequently presented peptide by cancer cells on HLA-A2 molecules. HCA661_246-254 may be a good candidate for clinical analysis....[ Read more ]

In this project, I used reverse immunology to identify the peptide HCA661_246-254 as the dominant epitope of HCA661, a newly identified CT antigen presented by HLA molecules in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. HCA661_246-254 was able to generate peptide-specific T cells which recognized HCA66⁺/HLA-A2⁺ cancer cell line HepG2. Results of LDH cytotoxicity and ELISPOT assays confirmed that HCA661_246-254 was able to activate T cells specifically targeting HepG2 cells. Intracellular IFN-γ secretion assay further confirmed the targeting activity of HCA661_246-254-specific T cells. The results of this study indicate that HCA661_246-254 is the most frequently presented peptide by cancer cells on HLA-A2 molecules. HCA661_246-254 may be a good candidate for clinical analysis.