Tumors reveal their secrets to cytotoxic T cells

摘要

Although the ability of cytotoxic T cells to recognize posttransla-tionally modified epitopes has been acknowledged for several years, few have exploited this observation in a targeted approach to generate immune responses of therapeutic benefit. In this issue of PNAS, Zarling et al. elegantly show how the aberrant signal transduction pathways in cancer cells, which are known to result in the accumulation of phosphorylated signaling molecules, can alert the immune system to such a malignant phenotype. Moreover, the investigators subsequently generate cytotoxic T cells toward tumor-specific phosphopeptides derived from some of these proteins and demonstrate their ability to selectively recognize tumor cells.