Multiple tumor-associated antigens (multiTAA) (multiTAA)

Multiple tumor-associated antigens (multiTAA) represent a collective therapeutic target class consisting of various proteins that are preferentially expressed or overexpressed in malignant tissues compared to normal tissues (StatPearls, 2024). In the context of solid tumors, this approach involves the simultaneous targeting of several antigens—such as PRAME, MAGE-A4, NY-ESO-1, Survivin, and SSX2—to address the inherent heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment (Leen et al., 2015; Marker Therapeutics, 2023). By targeting multiple epitopes, therapies like multiTAA-specific T cells or multi-antigen CAR-T cells aim to minimize the risk of immune escape through antigen loss, a common resistance mechanism in single-target immunotherapies (Dolton et al., 2023; Frontiers in Immunology, 2024). These antigens serve as the recognition sites for engineered or expanded immune cells, which upon binding, initiate cytotoxic activity and can trigger 'epitope spreading,' further broadening the anti-tumor immune response (Marker Therapeutics, 2023). This multi-pronged strategy is currently being evaluated in various clinical trials for refractory solid tumors and hematologic malignancies to improve the durability of clinical responses (ClinicalTrials.gov, 2024).

Other names

Multi-antigen targetsTumor-associated antigensTAAMulti-epitope targetsPan-antigen targets

Simultaneous binding and activation of immune effector cells against a panel of tumor-specific or tumor-associated proteins to overcome tumor heterogeneity and prevent antigen-loss escape (Dolton et al., 2023; Leen et al., 2015).