MART-1 (27-35) (human) – Other Categories

Tumour antigens recognised by cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) are a keen area of research to develop antigen-specific cancer therapies. However, hurdles are weak immunogenicity and high rates of degradation in vivo. In the search for a melanoma vaccine, the human tumour antigen Melan-A/MART-1 (27-35) has been used as a model to design peptides with improved characteristics for use in anti-tumour vaccines. The epitope can induce the production of melanoma-specific CD8+ T-cell responses. It has been included in melanoma antigen peptide vaccines, clinical trial data suggest that MART-1 (27-35) in human systems alongside other epitopes does affect the cellular and humoral responses, but much more work is required with this peptide to optimise it for clinical efficacy against melanoma. An alternate route that is possible but less studied is using MART-1 (27-35) to isolate CD8(+) T-cell clones with greater recognition for the epitope due to the contact with the T-cell receptor. This suggests melanomas could be targeted by optimising the T-cell receptor-peptide recognition of the T-cell repertoire by enhancing antigen targeting.