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Xin K, Wei X, Shao J, Chen F, Liu Q, Liu B. Establishment of a novel tumor neoantigen prediction tool for personalized vaccine design. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2024; 20:2300881. [PMID: 38214336 DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2300881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2024] Open
Abstract
The personalized neoantigen nanovaccine (PNVAC) platform for patients with gastric cancer we established previously exhibited promising anti-tumor immunoreaction. However, limited by the ability of traditional neoantigen prediction tools, a portion of epitopes failed to induce specific immune response. In order to filter out more neoantigens to optimize our PNVAC platform, we develop a novel neoantigen prediction model, NUCC. This prediction tool trained through a deep learning approach exhibits better neoantigen prediction performance than other prediction tools, not only in two independent epitope datasets, but also in a totally new epitope dataset we construct from scratch, including 25 patients with advance gastric cancer and 150 candidate mutant peptides, 13 of which prove to be neoantigen by immunogenicity test in vitro. Our work lay the foundation for the improvement of our PNVAC platform for gastric cancer in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Xin
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Xiao Wei
- Department of Pathology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Jie Shao
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Fangjun Chen
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Qin Liu
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Baorui Liu
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- Department of Oncology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
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2
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Rocha LGDN, Guimarães PAS, Carvalho MGR, Ruiz JC. Tumor Neoepitope-Based Vaccines: A Scoping Review on Current Predictive Computational Strategies. Vaccines (Basel) 2024; 12:836. [PMID: 39203962 PMCID: PMC11360805 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines12080836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2024] [Revised: 07/09/2024] [Accepted: 07/11/2024] [Indexed: 09/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Therapeutic cancer vaccines have been considered in recent decades as important immunotherapeutic strategies capable of leading to tumor regression. In the development of these vaccines, the identification of neoepitopes plays a critical role, and different computational methods have been proposed and employed to direct and accelerate this process. In this context, this review identified and systematically analyzed the most recent studies published in the literature on the computational prediction of epitopes for the development of therapeutic vaccines, outlining critical steps, along with the associated program's strengths and limitations. A scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA extension (PRISMA-ScR). Searches were performed in databases (Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct) using the keywords: neoepitope, epitope, vaccine, prediction, algorithm, cancer, and tumor. Forty-nine articles published from 2012 to 2024 were synthesized and analyzed. Most of the identified studies focus on the prediction of epitopes with an affinity for MHC I molecules in solid tumors, such as lung carcinoma. Predicting epitopes with class II MHC affinity has been relatively underexplored. Besides neoepitope prediction from high-throughput sequencing data, additional steps were identified, such as the prioritization of neoepitopes and validation. Mutect2 is the most used tool for variant calling, while NetMHCpan is favored for neoepitope prediction. Artificial/convolutional neural networks are the preferred methods for neoepitope prediction. For prioritizing immunogenic epitopes, the random forest algorithm is the most used for classification. The performance values related to the computational models for the prediction and prioritization of neoepitopes are high; however, a large part of the studies still use microbiome databases for training. The in vitro/in vivo validations of the predicted neoepitopes were verified in 55% of the analyzed studies. Clinical trials that led to successful tumor remission were identified, highlighting that this immunotherapeutic approach can benefit these patients. Integrating high-throughput sequencing, sophisticated bioinformatics tools, and rigorous validation methods through in vitro/in vivo assays as well as clinical trials, the tumor neoepitope-based vaccine approach holds promise for developing personalized therapeutic vaccines that target specific tumor cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luiz Gustavo do Nascimento Rocha
- Biologia Computacional e Sistemas (BCS), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil; (L.G.d.N.R.); (P.A.S.G.)
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Brazil
| | - Paul Anderson Souza Guimarães
- Biologia Computacional e Sistemas (BCS), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil; (L.G.d.N.R.); (P.A.S.G.)
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Brazil
| | - Maria Gabriela Reis Carvalho
- Biologia Computacional e Sistemas (BCS), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil; (L.G.d.N.R.); (P.A.S.G.)
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Brazil
| | - Jeronimo Conceição Ruiz
- Biologia Computacional e Sistemas (BCS), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-900, Brazil; (L.G.d.N.R.); (P.A.S.G.)
- Grupo Informática de Biossistemas e Genômica, Instituto René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 30190-002, Brazil
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3
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Machaca V, Goyzueta V, Cruz MG, Sejje E, Pilco LM, López J, Túpac Y. Transformers meets neoantigen detection: a systematic literature review. J Integr Bioinform 2024; 21:jib-2023-0043. [PMID: 38960869 DOI: 10.1515/jib-2023-0043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Cancer immunology offers a new alternative to traditional cancer treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. One notable alternative is the development of personalized vaccines based on cancer neoantigens. Moreover, Transformers are considered a revolutionary development in artificial intelligence with a significant impact on natural language processing (NLP) tasks and have been utilized in proteomics studies in recent years. In this context, we conducted a systematic literature review to investigate how Transformers are applied in each stage of the neoantigen detection process. Additionally, we mapped current pipelines and examined the results of clinical trials involving cancer vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Erika Sejje
- Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Arequipa, Perú
| | | | | | - Yván Túpac
- 187038 Universidad Católica San Pablo , Arequipa, Perú
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4
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Li Y, Wu X, Fang D, Luo Y. Informing immunotherapy with multi-omics driven machine learning. NPJ Digit Med 2024; 7:67. [PMID: 38486092 PMCID: PMC10940614 DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01043-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Progress in sequencing technologies and clinical experiments has revolutionized immunotherapy on solid and hematologic malignancies. However, the benefits of immunotherapy are limited to specific patient subsets, posing challenges for broader application. To improve its effectiveness, identifying biomarkers that can predict patient response is crucial. Machine learning (ML) play a pivotal role in harnessing multi-omic cancer datasets and unlocking new insights into immunotherapy. This review provides an overview of cutting-edge ML models applied in omics data for immunotherapy analysis, including immunotherapy response prediction and immunotherapy-relevant tumor microenvironment identification. We elucidate how ML leverages diverse data types to identify significant biomarkers, enhance our understanding of immunotherapy mechanisms, and optimize decision-making process. Additionally, we discuss current limitations and challenges of ML in this rapidly evolving field. Finally, we outline future directions aimed at overcoming these barriers and improving the efficiency of ML in immunotherapy research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yawei Li
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA
- Center for Collaborative AI in Healthcare, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA
| | - Xin Wu
- Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA
| | - Deyu Fang
- Department of Pathology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA
| | - Yuan Luo
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
- Center for Collaborative AI in Healthcare, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
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5
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Fasoulis R, Rigo MM, Antunes DA, Paliouras G, Kavraki LE. Transfer learning improves pMHC kinetic stability and immunogenicity predictions. IMMUNOINFORMATICS (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS) 2024; 13:100030. [PMID: 38577265 PMCID: PMC10994007 DOI: 10.1016/j.immuno.2023.100030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
The cellular immune response comprises several processes, with the most notable ones being the binding of the peptide to the Major Histocompability Complex (MHC), the peptide-MHC (pMHC) presentation to the surface of the cell, and the recognition of the pMHC by the T-Cell Receptor. Identifying the most potent peptide targets for MHC binding, presentation and T-cell recognition is vital for developing peptide-based vaccines and T-cell-based immunotherapies. Data-driven tools that predict each of these steps have been developed, and the availability of mass spectrometry (MS) datasets has facilitated the development of accurate Machine Learning (ML) methods for class-I pMHC binding prediction. However, the accuracy of ML-based tools for pMHC kinetic stability prediction and peptide immunogenicity prediction is uncertain, as stability and immunogenicity datasets are not abundant. Here, we use transfer learning techniques to improve stability and immunogenicity predictions, by taking advantage of a large number of binding affinity and MS datasets. The resulting models, TLStab and TLImm, exhibit comparable or better performance than state-of-the-art approaches on different stability and immunogenicity test sets respectively. Our approach demonstrates the promise of learning from the task of peptide binding to improve predictions on downstream tasks. The source code of TLStab and TLImm is publicly available at https://github.com/KavrakiLab/TL-MHC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romanos Fasoulis
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, 77005, TX, United States
| | - Mauricio Menegatti Rigo
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, 77005, TX, United States
| | - Dinler Amaral Antunes
- Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd, Houston, 77004, TX, United States
| | - Georgios Paliouras
- Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos, Patr. Gregoriou E and 27 Neapoleos St, Athens, 15341, Greece
| | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, 77005, TX, United States
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6
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Srivastava PK. Cancer neoepitopes viewed through negative selection and peripheral tolerance: a new path to cancer vaccines. J Clin Invest 2024; 134:e176740. [PMID: 38426497 PMCID: PMC10904052 DOI: 10.1172/jci176740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
A proportion of somatic mutations in tumors create neoepitopes that can prime T cell responses that target the MHC I-neoepitope complexes on tumor cells, mediating tumor control or rejection. Despite the compelling centrality of neoepitopes to cancer immunity, we know remarkably little about what constitutes a neoepitope that can mediate tumor control in vivo and what distinguishes such a neoepitope from the vast majority of similar candidate neoepitopes that are inefficacious in vivo. Studies in mice as well as clinical trials have begun to reveal the unexpected paradoxes in this area. Because cancer neoepitopes straddle that ambiguous ground between self and non-self, some rules that are fundamental to immunology of frankly non-self antigens, such as viral or model antigens, do not appear to apply to neoepitopes. Because neoepitopes are so similar to self-epitopes, with only small changes that render them non-self, immune response to them is regulated at least partially the way immune response to self is regulated. Therefore, neoepitopes are viewed and understood here through the clarifying lens of negative thymic selection. Here, the emergent questions in the biology and clinical applications of neoepitopes are discussed critically and a mechanistic and testable framework that explains the complexity and translational potential of these wonderful antigens is proposed.
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7
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Conev A, Fasoulis R, Hall-Swan S, Ferreira R, Kavraki LE. HLAEquity: Examining biases in pan-allele peptide-HLA binding predictors. iScience 2024; 27:108613. [PMID: 38188519 PMCID: PMC10770483 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 11/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Peptide-HLA (pHLA) binding prediction is essential in screening peptide candidates for personalized peptide vaccines. Machine learning (ML) pHLA binding prediction tools are trained on vast amounts of data and are effective in screening peptide candidates. Most ML models report the ability to generalize to HLA alleles unseen during training ("pan-allele" models). However, the use of datasets with imbalanced allele content raises concerns about biased model performance. First, we examine the data bias of two ML-based pan-allele pHLA binding predictors. We find that the pHLA datasets overrepresent alleles from geographic populations of high-income countries. Second, we show that the identified data bias is perpetuated within ML models, leading to algorithmic bias and subpar performance for alleles expressed in low-income geographic populations. We draw attention to the potential therapeutic consequences of this bias, and we challenge the use of the term "pan-allele" to describe models trained with currently available public datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Conev
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Romanos Fasoulis
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Sarah Hall-Swan
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Rodrigo Ferreira
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Lydia E. Kavraki
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
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8
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Li B, Jing P, Zheng G, Pi C, Zhang L, Yin Z, Xu L, Qiu J, Gu H, Qiu T, Fang J. Neo-intline: integrated pipeline enables neoantigen design through the in-silico presentation of T-cell epitope. Signal Transduct Target Ther 2023; 8:397. [PMID: 37848417 PMCID: PMC10582007 DOI: 10.1038/s41392-023-01644-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Neoantigen vaccines are one of the most effective immunotherapies for personalized tumour treatment. The current immunogen design of neoantigen vaccines is usually based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and bioinformatics prediction that focuses on the prediction of binding affinity between peptide and MHC molecules, ignoring other peptide-presenting related steps. This may result in a gap between high prediction accuracy and relatively low clinical effectiveness. In this study, we designed an integrated in-silico pipeline, Neo-intline, which started from the SNPs and indels of the tumour samples to simulate the presentation process of peptides in-vivo through an integrated calculation model. Validation on the benchmark dataset of TESLA and clinically validated neoantigens illustrated that neo-intline could outperform current state-of-the-art tools on both sample level and melanoma level. Furthermore, by taking the mouse melanoma model as an example, we verified the effectiveness of 20 neoantigens, including 10 MHC-I and 10 MHC-II peptides. The in-vitro and in-vivo experiments showed that both peptides predicted by Neo-intline could recruit corresponding CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells to induce a T-cell-mediated cellular immune response. Moreover, although the therapeutic effect of neoantigen vaccines alone is not sufficient, combinations with other specific therapies, such as broad-spectrum immune-enhanced adjuvants of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)), or immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies, can illustrate significant anticancer effects on melanoma. Neo-intline can be used as a benchmark process for the design and screening of immunogenic targets for neoantigen vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bingyu Li
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
- School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan, China
| | - Ping Jing
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Genhui Zheng
- Institute of Clinical Science, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Chenyu Pi
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Lu Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zuojing Yin
- Institute of Clinical Science, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Lijun Xu
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
- School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan, China
| | - Jingxuan Qiu
- School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Hua Gu
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Tianyi Qiu
- Institute of Clinical Science, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
- Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
| | - Jianmin Fang
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University Suzhou Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
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9
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Pu T, Peddle A, Zhu J, Tejpar S, Verbandt S. Neoantigen identification: Technological advances and challenges. Methods Cell Biol 2023; 183:265-302. [PMID: 38548414 DOI: 10.1016/bs.mcb.2023.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
Neoantigens have emerged as promising targets for cutting-edge immunotherapies, such as cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapy. These neoantigens are unique to tumors and arise exclusively from somatic mutations or non-genomic aberrations in tumor proteins. They encompass a wide range of alterations, including genomic mutations, post-transcriptomic variants, and viral oncoproteins. With the advancements in technology, the identification of immunogenic neoantigens has seen rapid progress, raising new opportunities for enhancing their clinical significance. Prediction of neoantigens necessitates the acquisition of high-quality samples and sequencing data, followed by mutation calling. Subsequently, the pipeline involves integrating various tools that can predict the expression, processing, binding, and recognition potential of neoantigens. However, the continuous improvement of computational tools is constrained by the availability of datasets which contain validated immunogenic neoantigens. This review article aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the current knowledge as well as limitations in neoantigen prediction and validation. Additionally, it delves into the origin and biological role of neoantigens, offering a deeper understanding of their significance in the field of cancer immunotherapy. This article thus seeks to contribute to the ongoing efforts to harness neoantigens as powerful weapons in the fight against cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ting Pu
- Digestive Oncology Unit, KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Jingjing Zhu
- de Duve Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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Wu T, Chen J, Diao K, Wang G, Wang J, Yao H, Liu XS. Neodb: a comprehensive neoantigen database and discovery platform for cancer immunotherapy. Database (Oxford) 2023; 2023:baad041. [PMID: 37311149 DOI: 10.1093/database/baad041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2023] [Revised: 05/06/2023] [Accepted: 05/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Neoantigens derived from somatic deoxyribonucleic acid alterations are ideal cancer-specific targets. However, integrated platform for neoantigen discovery is urgently needed. Recently, many scattered experimental evidences suggest that some neoantigens are immunogenic, and comprehensive collection of these experimentally validated neoantigens is still lacking. Here, we have integrated the commonly used tools in the current neoantigen discovery process to form a comprehensive web-based analysis platform. To identify experimental evidences supporting the immunogenicity of neoantigens, we performed comprehensive literature search and constructed the database. The collection of public neoantigens was obtained by using comprehensive features to filter the potential neoantigens from recurrent driver mutations. Importantly, we constructed a graph neural network (GNN) model (Immuno-GNN) using an attention mechanism to consider the spatial interactions between human leukocyte antigen and antigenic peptides for neoantigen immunogenicity prediction. The new easy-to-use R/Shiny web-based neoantigen database and discovery platform, Neodb, contains currently the largest number of experimentally validated neoantigens. In addition to validated neoantigen, Neodb also includes three additional modules for facilitating neoantigen prediction and analysis, including 'Tools' module (comprehensive neoantigen prediction tools); 'Driver-Neo' module (collection of public neoantigens derived from recurrent mutations) and 'Immuno-GNN' module (a novel immunogenicity prediction tool based on a GNN). Immuno-GNN shows improved performance compared with known methods and also represents the first application of GNN model in neoantigen immunogenicity prediction. The construction of Neodb will facilitate the study of neoantigen immunogenicity and the clinical application of neoantigen-based cancer immunotherapy. Database URL https://liuxslab.com/Neodb/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Wu
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
- Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Yanqihu East Rd, Huairou District, Beijing 101408, China
| | - Jing Chen
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Kaixuan Diao
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Guangshuai Wang
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Jinyu Wang
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Huizi Yao
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Xue-Song Liu
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong, Shanghai 201203, China
- Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, 1599 Keyuan Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai 201203, China
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11
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Oreper D, Klaeger S, Jhunjhunwala S, Delamarre L. The peptide woods are lovely, dark and deep: Hunting for novel cancer antigens. Semin Immunol 2023; 67:101758. [PMID: 37027981 DOI: 10.1016/j.smim.2023.101758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
Abstract
Harnessing the patient's immune system to control a tumor is a proven avenue for cancer therapy. T cell therapies as well as therapeutic vaccines, which target specific antigens of interest, are being explored as treatments in conjunction with immune checkpoint blockade. For these therapies, selecting the best suited antigens is crucial. Most of the focus has thus far been on neoantigens that arise from tumor-specific somatic mutations. Although there is clear evidence that T-cell responses against mutated neoantigens are protective, the large majority of these mutations are not immunogenic. In addition, most somatic mutations are unique to each individual patient and their targeting requires the development of individualized approaches. Therefore, novel antigen types are needed to broaden the scope of such treatments. We review high throughput approaches for discovering novel tumor antigens and some of the key challenges associated with their detection, and discuss considerations when selecting tumor antigens to target in the clinic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Oreper
- Genentech, 1 DNA way, South San Francisco, 94080 CA, USA.
| | - Susan Klaeger
- Genentech, 1 DNA way, South San Francisco, 94080 CA, USA.
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12
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Zhang Y, Wu J, Zhao C, Zhang S, Zhu J. Recent Advancement of PD-L1 Detection Technologies and Clinical Applications in the Era of Precision Cancer Therapy. J Cancer 2023; 14:850-873. [PMID: 37056391 PMCID: PMC10088895 DOI: 10.7150/jca.81899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Programmed death-1 is a protein found on the surface of immune cells that can interact with its ligand, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which is expressed on the plasma membrane, the surface of secreted cellular exosomes, in cell nuclei, or as a circulating soluble protein. This interaction can lead to immune escape in cancer patients. In clinical settings, PD-L1 plays an important role in tumor disease diagnosis, determining therapeutic effectiveness, and predicting patient prognosis. PD-L1 inhibitors are also essential components of tumor immunotherapy. Thus, the detection of PD-L1 levels is crucial, especially in the era of precision cancer therapy. In recent years, innovations have been made in traditional immunoassay methods and the development of new immunoassays for PD-L1 detection. This review aims to summarize recent research progress in tumor PD-L1 detection technology and highlight the clinical applications of PD-L1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanfeng Zhang
- Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, 264003, China
| | - Juanjuan Wu
- Binzhou People's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Binzhou, Shandong, 256600, China
| | - Chaobin Zhao
- Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, 264003, China
| | - Shuyuan Zhang
- Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, 264003, China
| | - Jianbo Zhu
- Binzhou People's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Binzhou, Shandong, 256600, China
- ✉ Corresponding author: Pro. Jianbo Zhu, Binzhou People's Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, 515 Yellow River Seven Road, Binzhou, Shandong, 256600, China; ,
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