Cancer/testis antigens can be immunological targets in clonogenic CD133 melanoma cells

Abstract

"Cancer stem cells" that resist conventional treatments may be a cause of therapeutic failure in melanoma. We report a subpopulation of clonogenic melanoma cells that are characterized by high prominin-1/CD133 expression in melanoma and melanoma cell lines. These cells have enhanced clonogenicity and self-renewal in vitro, and serve as a limited in vitro model for melanoma stem cells. In some cases clonogenic CD133+ melanoma cells show increased expression of some cancer/testis (CT) antigens. The expression of NY-ESO-1 in an HLA-A2 expressing cell line allowed CD133 + clonogenic melanoma cells to be targeted for killing in vitro by NY-ESO-1-specific CD8+ T-lymphocytes. Our in vitro findings ..