Patient-specific tumor neoantigens presented on MHC class I and II molecules (Neoantigens)

Patient-specific tumor neoantigens are unique proteins formed by somatic mutations within a patient's tumor cells that are not found in healthy tissues (Schumacher & Schreiber, 2015). These mutated proteins are processed into short peptides and presented on the cell surface by Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class I and Class II molecules, where they can be recognized by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, respectively (Sahin & Türeci, 2018). Because these antigens are absent from the normal proteome, they are highly immunogenic and serve as ideal targets for personalized cancer immunotherapies, such as neoantigen vaccines and TCR-engineered T-cell therapies (Blass & Ott, 2021). By targeting these specific markers, the immune system can be precisely directed to eliminate cancer cells while sparing healthy ones, potentially overcoming the limitations of traditional therapies (Hu et al., 2021). Current clinical strategies involve using next-generation sequencing to identify mutations and bioinformatics to predict which neoantigens will most effectively bind to a patient's specific HLA alleles (Chu et al., 2020).

Other names

Tumor-specific antigensTSAsNeoepitopesMutation-derived antigensPersonalized neoantigensTumor-specific neoantigens

Induction of de novo T-cell responses or expansion of pre-existing T-cell clones specific to tumor-unique mutations presented on MHC molecules, leading to targeted tumor cell lysis (Sahin & Türeci, 2018).