Exhaustion of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells in metastases from melanoma patients

In chronic viral infections, CD8⁺ T cells become functionally deficient and display multiple molecular alterations. In contrast, only little is known of self- and tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells from mice and humans. Here we determined molecular profiles of tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells from melanoma patients. In peripheral blood from patients vaccinated with CpG and the melanoma antigen Melan-A/MART-1 peptide, we found functional effector T cell populations, with only small but nevertheless significant differences in T cells specific for persistent herpesviruses (EBV and CMV). In contrast, Melan-A/MART-1-specific T cells isolated from metastases from patients with melanoma expressed a large variety of genes…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• CR
  Cancer Research Institute
• P
  Pfizer
• LI
  Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
• SN
  Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
• NC
  National Center of Competence in Research Chemical Biology