Serologic detection of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma‐associated antigens

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Abstract
Diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) accounts for 30–40% of all adult non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas, yet the understanding of its underlying genetic abnormalities remains poor. Our present study used the serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries (SEREX) technique to identify DLBCL‐associated antigens. SEREX screening of testis libraries has previously identified cancer‐testis antigens (CTAs) that may act as disease‐specific targets for immunotherapy. Screening a testis cDNA expression library with serum from a DLBCL patient identified a total of 94 positive clones, representing 28 distinct antigens. Two of these antigens were novel, 8 were previously uncharacterised, and the remainder were proteins of known function. Screening of the antigens with sera from DLBCL (n = 10), acute myeloid leukaemia (AML, n = 10) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML, n = 10) patients, alongside normal healthy donor controls (n = 20), revealed that 7 of the antigens were recognised by DLBCL sera but not normal donor sera, whilst 2 of these antigens were also recognised by leukaemic sera. Some of the genes identified here were already known to be transcribed in DLBCL. The mRNA expression of the majority of the remaining antigens was confirmed in DLBCL cell lines using reverse‐transcriptase PCR (RT‐PCR). Our study identified a number of DLBCL associated antigens that may be suitable as prognostic/diagnostic markers and/or for the immunotherapy of haematologic malignancies.