[Screening and identification of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma-associated antigens].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to provide an informative marker for clinical immunopathological diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to lay a foundation for furture study of immunotherapy. METHODS: The NPC cDNA expression library was screened by serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries (SEREX) technology using xenogenic immune sera. The positive nucleotide sequences of cDNA inserts were determined and analysed with DNASIS and BLAST software in EMBL and GenBank. RESULTS: Eighteen positive clones encoding antigen genes were obtained after immunoscreening. These antigen genes included known genes, such as MAGE gene, CREM gene, beta2-microglobulin, Ribosomal Protein, et al, and unknown genes or ESTs in GenBank. To characterize the expression profile of these genes, the antibodies in sera from 40 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients and 40 healthy donors were assayed with three antigens to screen specific and relative serum markers for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The results showed that the positive rates for These results indicate nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients were higher than those for healthy donors. CONCLUSION: that some of the antigens may be related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma and may be valuable tumor markers in the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.