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Chronic Myeloproliferative Disorders

Identification of NM23-H2 as a tumour-associated antigen in chronic myeloid leukaemia

Leukemia volume 22, pages 1542–1550 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Therapeutic effects of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation are not limited to maximal chemoradiotherapy and subsequent bone marrow regeneration, but include specific as well as unspecific immune reactions known as graft-versus-leukaemia (GvL) effects. Specific immune reactions are likely to be particularly relevant to the long-term treatment of diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), in which residual cells may remain quiescent and unresponsive to cytotoxic and molecular therapies for long periods of time. Specific GvL effects result from the expression on leukaemic cells of specific tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) in the context of HLA proteins. As human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types vary widely, the development of broadly applicable tumour vaccines will require the identification of multiple TAAs active in different HLA backgrounds. Here, we describe the identification of NM23-H2 as a novel HLA-A32-restricted TAA of CML cells and demonstrate the presence of specifically reactive T cells in a patient 5 years after transplantation. As the NM23 proteins are aberrantly expressed in a range of different tumours, our findings suggest potential applications beyond CML and provide a new avenue of investigation into the molecular mechanisms underlying CML.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A Jilo for technical assistance. This work was supported by Grant 70-3344 (TP IV C/D) from the Deutsche Krebshilfe and by Grant D08 from the IZKF Leipzig to DN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology and Internal Oncology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    S Tschiedel, C Gentilini, T Lange, M Cross & D Niederwieser

  2. Department of Medicine III, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    C Wölfel, T Wölfel, V Lennerz & C Huber

  3. Department of Immunology, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    S Stevanovic & H-G Rammensee

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  1. S Tschiedel
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Correspondence to D Niederwieser.

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Tschiedel, S., Gentilini, C., Lange, T. et al. Identification of NM23-H2 as a tumour-associated antigen in chronic myeloid leukaemia. Leukemia 22, 1542–1550 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2008.107

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2008.107

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