Identifying native and heteroclitic epitopes for T-cell immunity to PAX3-FKHR alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma
Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is an aggressive muscle tumor of childhood for which recurrent or metastatic disease carries a poor prognosis and novel therapies are needed. It is characterized most commonly by the oncogenic fusion protein PAX3-FKHR which represents a novel antigen and, therefore a potential target for immunotherapy. This study will use in vitro priming assays on human cells to address two specific aims to: 1) Identify for given HLA haplotypes any PAX3-FKHR breakpoint-spanning peptide that can generate CD8+ or CD4+ response and 2) Test predicted heteroclitic epitopes for PAX3-FKHR for their ability to activate CD8+ or CD4+ T cells.