Characterization of ovarian cancer-associated antigens that enhance cytotoxic T cell responses

Zen Gordon

Mentor: Tonya J.Webb, Ph.D. & Zewde Ingram

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women, thereby accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. It is known that ovarian cancer tissue contains lymphocytes; however, responsiveness to immunotherapy has been limited. Therefore, the purpose of our research project is to determine antigenic proteins in ovarian cancer cells that correlate with patient survival. Previous studies have identified several peptide antigens that have been demonstrated to induce potent T cell responses to ovarian cancer. We hypothesize that the overexpression of genes encoding these peptides will lead to better outcomes, due to the increased ability of the immune system to recognize tumor cells. In contrast, downregulation or mutations in these genes will correlate with poor outcomes. We are using resources such as cBioPortal, Uniprot, Cancer Genome/Proteome Atlas, and other NIH databases to investigate the level of expression and function of these genes in ovarian cancer. Future studies will focus on developing strategies to target these candidate antigens, as well as determine if ovarian cancer patients have T cells specific for these neoantigens. Collectively, our studies implicate a role for cancer-associated antigens in dictating responsiveness to immunotherapy.