Abstract# 4176: Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase, MELK, encodes novel cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes capable of inducing HLA A* 0201 restricted and tumor …

Purpose: Malignant melanoma is one of the most immunogenic human tumors, but objective clinical responses involving immunotherapies with currently characterized antigens remain only at 5-10%. To develop additional targets of immune attack that may lead to more successful therapeutic strategies, we identified novel HLA-A*0201(A2)-restricted T cell epitopes from a serine/threonine protein kinase, maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK), which are overexpressed in advanced melanoma tissues. Experimental Design: HLA-A*0201-restricted CTL epitopes were identified by the following procedures: (a) computer-based HLA-A2-restricted epitope prediction from the MELK sequence; (b) establishment of CTL clones responsive against the predicted peptides in vitro and testing of these clones for their ability to react melanoma cell lines expressing naturally processed epitopes bound to HLA-A2; (c …