Characterization of an immunodominant cancer-specific O-glycopeptide epitope in murine podoplanin (OTS8)

Glycoconj J. 2010 Aug;27(6):571-82. doi: 10.1007/s10719-010-9301-6. Epub 2010 Aug 19.

Abstract

Auto-antibodies induced by cancer represent promising sensitive biomarkers and probes to identify immunotherapeutic targets without immunological tolerance. Surprisingly few epitopes for such auto-antibodies have been identified to date. Recently, a cancer-specific syngeneic murine monoclonal antibody 237, developed to a spontaneous murine fibrosarcoma, was shown to be directed to murine podoplanin (OTS8) with truncated Tn O-glycans. Our understanding of such cancer-specific auto-antibodies to truncated glycoforms of glycoproteins is limited. Here we have investigated immunogenicity of a chemoenzymatically produced Tn-glycopeptide derived from the putative murine podoplanin O-glycopeptide epitope. We found that the Tn O-glycopeptide was highly immunogenic in mice and produced a Tn-glycoform specific response with no reactivity against unglycosylated peptides or the O-glycopeptide with extended O-glycan (STn and T glycoforms). The immunodominant epitope was strictly dependent on the peptide sequence, required Tn at a specific single Thr residue (Thr(77)), and antibodies to the epitope were not found in naive mice. We further tested a Tn O-glycopeptide library derived from human podoplanin by microarray analysis and demonstrated that the epitope was not conserved in man. We also tested human cancer sera for potential auto-antibodies to similar epitopes, but did not detect such antibodies to the Tn-library of podoplanin. The reagents and methods developed will be valuable for further studies of the nature and timing of induction of auto-antibodies to distinct O-glycopeptide epitopes induced by cancer. The results demonstrate that truncated O-glycopeptides constitute highly distinct antibody epitopes with great potential as targets for biomarkers and immunotherapeutics.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Antibody Specificity / immunology
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Glycopeptides / chemistry
  • Glycopeptides / immunology*
  • Glycosylation
  • Humans
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / chemistry*
  • Immunodominant Epitopes / immunology*
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology
  • Membrane Glycoproteins / chemistry*
  • Membrane Glycoproteins / immunology*
  • Mice
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neoplasms / chemistry*
  • Neoplasms / immunology*
  • Protein Array Analysis
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization

Substances

  • Glycopeptides
  • Gp38 protein, mouse
  • Immunodominant Epitopes
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Membrane Glycoproteins