Autophagy, citrullination and cancer

A cell needs to maintain a balance between biosynthesis and degradation of cellular components to maintain homeostasis. There are 2 pathways, the proteasome, which degrades short-lived proteins, and the autophagy/lysosomal pathway, which degrades long-lived proteins and organelles. Both of these pat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Durrant, LG
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49773/
_version_ 1848798074185449472
author Durrant, LG
author_facet Durrant, LG
author_sort Durrant, LG
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description A cell needs to maintain a balance between biosynthesis and degradation of cellular components to maintain homeostasis. There are 2 pathways, the proteasome, which degrades short-lived proteins, and the autophagy/lysosomal pathway, which degrades long-lived proteins and organelles. Both of these pathways are also involved in antigen presentation or the effective delivery of peptides to MHC molecules for presentation to T cells. Autophagy (macroautophagy) is a key player in providing substantial sources of citrullinated peptides for loading onto MHC-II molecules to stimulate CD4(+) T cell responses. Stressful conditions in the tumor microenvironment induce autophagy in cancer cells as a mechanism to promote their survival. We therefore investigated if citrullinated peptides could stimulate CD4(+) T cell responses that would recognize these modifications produced during autophagy within tumor cells. Focusing on the intermediate filament protein VIM (vimentin), we generated citrullinated VIM peptides for immunization experiments in mice. Immunization with these peptides induced CD4(+) T cells in response to autophagic tumor targets. Remarkably, a single immunization with modified peptide, up to 14 d after tumor implant, resulted in long-term survival in 60% to 90% of animals with no associated toxicity. These results show how CD4(+) cells can mediate potent antitumor responses against modified self-epitopes presented on tumor cells, and they illustrate for the first time how the citrullinated peptides produced during autophagy may offer especially attractive vaccine targets for cancer therapy.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:13:59Z
format Article
id nottingham-49773
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:13:59Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Taylor & Francis
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-497732020-05-04T17:53:12Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49773/ Autophagy, citrullination and cancer Durrant, LG A cell needs to maintain a balance between biosynthesis and degradation of cellular components to maintain homeostasis. There are 2 pathways, the proteasome, which degrades short-lived proteins, and the autophagy/lysosomal pathway, which degrades long-lived proteins and organelles. Both of these pathways are also involved in antigen presentation or the effective delivery of peptides to MHC molecules for presentation to T cells. Autophagy (macroautophagy) is a key player in providing substantial sources of citrullinated peptides for loading onto MHC-II molecules to stimulate CD4(+) T cell responses. Stressful conditions in the tumor microenvironment induce autophagy in cancer cells as a mechanism to promote their survival. We therefore investigated if citrullinated peptides could stimulate CD4(+) T cell responses that would recognize these modifications produced during autophagy within tumor cells. Focusing on the intermediate filament protein VIM (vimentin), we generated citrullinated VIM peptides for immunization experiments in mice. Immunization with these peptides induced CD4(+) T cells in response to autophagic tumor targets. Remarkably, a single immunization with modified peptide, up to 14 d after tumor implant, resulted in long-term survival in 60% to 90% of animals with no associated toxicity. These results show how CD4(+) cells can mediate potent antitumor responses against modified self-epitopes presented on tumor cells, and they illustrate for the first time how the citrullinated peptides produced during autophagy may offer especially attractive vaccine targets for cancer therapy. Taylor & Francis 2016-05-04 Article PeerReviewed Durrant, LG (2016) Autophagy, citrullination and cancer. Autophagy, 12 (6). pp. 1055-1056. ISSN 1554-8635 antigen presentation; autophagy; cancer; citrullination; peptidylarginine deiminases http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15548627.2016.1166326 doi:10.1080/15548627.2016.1166326 doi:10.1080/15548627.2016.1166326
spellingShingle antigen presentation; autophagy; cancer; citrullination; peptidylarginine deiminases
Durrant, LG
Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title_full Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title_fullStr Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title_full_unstemmed Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title_short Autophagy, citrullination and cancer
title_sort autophagy, citrullination and cancer
topic antigen presentation; autophagy; cancer; citrullination; peptidylarginine deiminases
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49773/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49773/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49773/