P. van der Bruggen

TL;DR: In this paper, a gene was identified that directed the expression of antigen MZ2-E on a human melanoma cell line, which belongs to a family of at least three genes.

TL;DR: It appears increasingly unlikely that immunization of patients against one of these antigens will cause harmful immunological side effects caused by the expression of the relevant gene in the testis, and these conclusions are further strengthened by immunization studies carried out with mouse tumor antigen P815A, which is encoded by a gene that is also expressed only in thetestis.

TL;DR: It is shown here that antigen MZ2-D, which is present on the same tumor, is encoded by another member of the MAGE gene family named MAGE-3, which may have a wide applicability for specific immunotherapy of melanoma patients.

TL;DR: It is shown that CTL directed against this antigen, which was named MZ2-E, recognize a nonapeptide encoded by the third exon of gene MAGE-1, which opens the possibility of immunizing HLA-A1 patients whose tumor expresses Mage-1 either with the antigenic peptide or with autologous antigen-presenting cells pulsed with the peptide.

TL;DR: It is reported that the MAGE‐3 gene also codes for another antigenic peptide that is recognized by CTL restricted by HLA‐A2, and the proportion of melanoma tumors expressing this antigen should be approximately 32 % in Caucasian populations.