Tumor Biology

, Volume 37, Issue 6, pp 7757–7765 | Cite as

Testis expressed 19 is a novel cancer-testis antigen expressed in bladder cancer

  • Jianhua Zhong
  • Yan Chen
  • Xinhui Liao
  • Jiaqiang Li
  • Han Wang
  • Chenglong Wu
  • Xiaowen Zou
  • Gang Yang
  • Jing Shi
  • Liya Luo
  • Litao Liu
  • Jianping Deng
  • Aifa Tang
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Bladder cancer exhibits high mortality as a result of limited therapeutic options and a high recurrence rate. Accordingly, novel treatments such as immunotherapy have emerged as promising therapeutic modalities to prolong overall patient survival and effect a disease cure, which has renewed enthusiasm for the identification of tumor-specific target antigens. Cancer-testis (CT) antigens are recognized as ideal targets for immunotherapy because of their expression features and high immunogenicity profiles. Here, we investigate the expression pattern of a novel CT antigen, testis-expressed 19 (TEX19), in patients with bladder carcinoma and among multiple human tissues. Six bladder cancer cell lines (T24, UM-UC-3, J82, 5637, SW780, and RT4) were also analyzed for TEX19 expression. Our results reveal that TEX19 expression in normal tissue is restricted to human testis. In addition, TEX19 mRNA expression was detected in 60 % (24/40) bladder cancer samples, whereas 58.20 % (110/189) were positive for TEXT19 protein expression. Compared to low-grade tumors, TEX19 exhibited increased expression in high-grade tumors, from 53.69 to 77.14 %, respectively (P = 0.011). TEX19 was also expressed in all six bladder cancer cell lines. Together, our findings suggest that TEX19 represents a novel CT gene and might play a role in the progression of bladder cancer and that this gene therefore provides a potential target for immunotherapy treatment strategies against bladder cancer.

Keywords

Bladder cancer Cancer/testis antigens TEX19 Immunotherapy 

Abbreviations

CT

Cancer-testis

TEX19

Testis-expressed 19

MAGE-A1

Melanoma antigen-A1

MAGE-A3

Melanoma antigen-A3

NY-ESO-1

New York esophageal squamous cell carcinoma-1

ANCT

Adjacent noncancerous tissue

qRT-PCR

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

SDS-PAGE

Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

PVDF

Polyvinylidene difluoride

TMA

Tissue microarray

H2O2

Hydroxyl peroxide

RT

Room temperature

DAB

Diaminobenzidine

EST

Expressed sequence tag

TAAs

Tumor-associated antigens

MAGE-A

Melanoma antigen-A

TCC

Transitional cell carcinoma

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Notes

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81170613 and 81270740) and the Shenzhen Basic Research Knowledge Innovation Program (grant no. JCYJ20140416180 323426).

Authors’ contributions

JZ, CY, and XL conceived and designed the study and writing of the manuscript; JL, CW, XZ, and HW carried out the immunohistochemical staining, the morphological analysis, and the scoring of the sections; GY performed RT-PCR and qRT-PCR; JS carried out the western blotting. LL and ML were involved in statistical analysis; JD and LL corrected the paper; AT designed this study and help for writing; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Conflicts of interest

None

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Copyright information

© International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jianhua Zhong
    • 1
    • 2
  • Yan Chen
    • 1
    • 3
  • Xinhui Liao
    • 4
  • Jiaqiang Li
    • 5
  • Han Wang
    • 1
    • 6
  • Chenglong Wu
    • 1
    • 3
  • Xiaowen Zou
    • 1
    • 2
  • Gang Yang
    • 1
    • 3
  • Jing Shi
    • 1
    • 3
  • Liya Luo
    • 1
    • 3
  • Litao Liu
    • 1
    • 3
  • Jianping Deng
    • 2
    • 7
  • Aifa Tang
    • 1
  1. 1.National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Clinical Application of Cancer Genomics, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospitalthe First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen UniversityShenzhenChina
  2. 2.Shantou University Medical CollegeShantouChina
  3. 3.Guangzhou Medical UniversityGuangzhouChina
  4. 4.Department of Urinary Surgery, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospitalthe First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen UniversityShenzhenChina
  5. 5.Department of Pediatric Urinary SurgeryShenzhen Children’s HospitalShenzhenChina
  6. 6.Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina
  7. 7.Department of Gastrointestinal SurgeryPeking University Shenzhen HospitalShenzhenChina

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