Characters of neoantigens in cancer immunotherapy

Cancer mutations lead to the production of mutated proteins from which can be processed and presented to CD8 T cells as neoantigens. Despite the promise of immunotherapy targeting neoantigens, which mutant peptides are likely to induce immune responses remain elusive. Here, we determined two sets of MHC-I bound neoantigen structures and performed bioinformatics investigation based on neoantigen data. Structural and bioinformatic analyses reveal that some types of mutations in immunogenic neoantigens are preferentially selected. We also developed a strategy to expand the usage of a known neoantigen by scanning potential MHC alleles. Overall, our results will extend the ability to discover neoantigens that may be useful for cancer immunotherapy.