Immune rage against MAGE unleashed.

摘要

In this issue of Blood, Goodyear and colleagues show that CD8 T-cell immunity against melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE)-a cancer testis antigen (CTA) not normally expressed in hematopoietic cells-is induced in leukemia patients treated with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors azacitidine (AZA) and sodium valproate (VPA), respectively. The authors report that up-regulation of MAGE in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by AZA plus VPA is associated with major clinical responses and an increase of MAGE-specific effector T cells. Will this observation lead to testing of these drugs in immune-therapy strategies?