The adoptive transfer of naturally occurring T cells that recognize cancer neoantigens has led to durable tumor regressions in select patients with cancer. However, it remains unknown whether such T cells can be isolated from and used to treat patients with glioblastoma, a cancer that is refractory to currently available therapies. To answer this question, we stimulated patient blood-derived memory T cells in vitro using peptides and minigenes that represented point mutations unique to patients' tumors (ie, candidate neoantigens) and then tested their ability to specifically recognize these mutations. In a cohort of five patients with glioblastoma, we found that circulating CD4+ memory T cells from one patient recognized a cancer neoantigen harboring a mutation in the EED gene (EEDH189N) that was unique to that patient's tumor. This finding suggests that neoantigen-reactive T cells could indeed be isolated from patients with glioblastoma, thereby providing a rationale for further efforts to develop neoantigen-directed adoptive T cell therapy for this disease.
Keywords: CD4-positive T-lymphocytes; T-lymphocytes; adoptive; brain neoplasms; cellular; immunity; immunotherapy.
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