Journal of Hematology & Oncology (Oct 2022)

Direct identification of HLA class I and class II-restricted T cell epitopes in pancreatic cancer tissues by mass spectrometry

  • Kenji Fujiwara,
  • Yingkuan Shao,
  • Nan Niu,
  • Tengyi Zhang,
  • Brian Herbst,
  • Mackenzie Henderson,
  • Stephen Muth,
  • Pingbo Zhang,
  • Lei Zheng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13045-022-01373-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

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Abstract Background Identifying T cell epitopes on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) associated antigens or neoantigens has been a challenge. In this study, we attempted to identify PDAC T cell epitopes by mass spectrometry (MS). Methods We isolated HLA class I (HLA-I) and HLA class II (HLA-II)-restricted peptides, respectively, from tissues of human PDAC by using the pan-HLA-I or pan-HLA-II affinity purification column and identified T cell epitopes by peptidome analysis with MS. Results Through peptidome analysis, we identified T cell epitopes shared by multiple patients with different HLA types and those containing sequences of both anti-HLA-I and HLA-II antibodies-affinity purified peptides. The identified epitopes bound non-matched HLA molecules and induced T cell response in peripheral T cells from both HLA-type matched and non-matched patients. Peptides containing both HLA class I and class II epitopes were able to induce polyfunctional cytokine responses in peripheral T cells. Conclusions T cell epitopes in PDAC can be discovered by the MS approach and can be designed into vaccine and TCR-T cell therapies for both HLA-type matched and non-matched patients.

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