Identification of proteome changes in apoptotic NSCLC cells

Here, we used an unbiased, functional target-discovery platform to identify immunogenic proteins from primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells that had been induced to apoptosis by cisplatin (CDDP) treatment in vitro, as compared with their live counterparts. Among the multitude of proteins identified, some of them were represented as fragmented proteins in apoptotic tumor cells, and acted as non-mutated neoantigens. Only the fragmented proteins elicited effective multi-specific T cell responses, upon a chemotherapy protocol including CDDP. Importantly, these responses further increased significantly upon anti-PD-1 therapy, and correlated with patients’ survival and decreased PD-1 expression.