Identification of bacteria-derived HLA-bound peptides in melanoma

The presence of bacteria in cancer cells raise the question if antigens derived from these bacteria are presented by the human HLA-I/II of tumor cells, and whether such antigens can elicit a tumor-infiltrating T-cell immune response. In this work, led by Dr. Yardena Samuels from the Weizmann institute and in collaboration with Dr. Jen Wargo from MDACC we profiled bacteria in human melanoma tumors and demonstrated that peptides from these bacteria are presented on HLA-I/II of cancer cells from these tumors and can elicit immune reactivity.

Link to paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33731925/

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Nature, 2021