Identification of a meiosis-specific protein, MEIOB, as a novel cancer/testis antigen and its augmented expression in demethylated cancer cells

• We identified that MEIOB gene expression was enhanced by DAC-treatment in A549.
• MEIOB gene expression was detected in some cancer cell lines.
• MEIOB gene expression was increased by DAC-treatment in some cancer cell lines.
• We identified helper epitopes of MEIOB and their HLA restriction recognized by MEIOB specific T cells.
• MEIOB and HLA class II expressing cancer cells were recognized by HLA-matched MEIOB specific T cells.

Cancer/testis (CT) antigens, which are expressed in various cancer cells but not in normal cells except germline cells of the testis, have been used as targets for cancer vaccine therapy. 5-Aza-2′-deoxycytidine (DAC), a potent inhibitor of genomic and promoter-specific DNA methylation, inhibits DNA methyltransferase activity and is reported to induce the expression of certain CT antigens by the demethylation of promoter CpG islands of the treated cells. Here, using DAC-treated cancer cells, we searched for novel attractive target molecules that would be useful for cancer immunotherapy and found a meiosis-specific protein, meiosis specific with OB domains (MEIOB), to be a novel CT antigen. Indeed, the MEIOB gene is expressed only in the testis and not in other normal tissues. The mRNA expression of MEIOB was greatly enhanced in several lung cancer cell lines after the treatment with DAC. Furthermore, we identified a variety of helper epitopes of the MEIOB antigen, which were recognized by MEIOB antigen-specific T cells in a HLA-restriction manner. Finally, we demonstrated that IFN-γ production of MEIOB peptide-specific helper T cells in response to HLA-matched cancer cells was greatly augmented by treatment with DAC and IFN-γ. Taken together, these findings show DAC to be a promising tool for finding novel CT antigens and for developing a future novel combination cancer vaccine chemotherapy.