Melanoma-associated antigen recognized by T cells 1 (MART-1 / MLANA)

Melanoma-associated antigen recognized by T cells 1 (MART-1), also commonly referred to as Melan-A, is a lineage-specific differentiation antigen primarily expressed in melanocytes and melanoma cells [1, 2, 4]. As a type III transmembrane protein, it resides within the endoplasmic reticulum and melanosomes, where it is essential for melanosome biogenesis by stabilizing and facilitating the trafficking of premelanosome protein (PMEL17/gp100) [2, 6, 13]. MART-1 is a highly significant target in melanoma immunotherapy due to its immunodominant HLA-A*02:01-restricted epitope (residues 26-35), which is frequently recognized by tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in patients [2, 5, 10]. Therapeutic approaches targeting MART-1 include the development of peptide-based cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapies using T-cell receptors (TCR) engineered to recognize MART-1/HLA complexes [3, 10, 15]. However, because MART-1 is also expressed in normal melanocytes in the skin, eye, and inner ear, its therapeutic targeting can lead to on-target, off-tumor toxicities such as vitiligo, uveitis, and hearing loss [3, 18, 19].

Other names

Melan-AMART1MLANAMelanoma antigen recognized by T-cells 1Protein Melan-AAntigen LB39-AAAntigen SK29-AA

MHC class I-restricted presentation of immunodominant MART-1 peptides to cytotoxic T lymphocytes, inducing antigen-specific recognition and tumor cell lysis.