I keep going on about22 Jan 2019 15:24
Antigens and epitopes .........
this is why the industry has such difficulty in finding them .........
Out of 36,500 antigens bound by the patients' MHC, the researchers identified just 52 that were specifically associated with the cancer cells. Remarkably, each of these 52 peptides were derived from just one protein -- the immunoglobulin receptor on the surface of the cancer cells. This was particularly surprising due to the fact that the researchers, using a separate technique, had identified between 13 and 175 cancer-specific mutations, or putative targets, per patient.
The implications are striking. Most abnormal cancer proteins, it seems, are not effective recognition targets at all. Instead, only the select few that are displayed by the cancer cell MHC are likely to be prime targets for immunotherapy. And although this study specifically studied mantle cell lymphoma, there's reason to expect that the immune response to other cancers might be similar, the researchers believe. If so, it's imperative to identify effective targets before beginning immunotherapy.
The moditope suite ... works !!