Mapping naturally presented T-cell antigens in medulloblastoma based on integrative multi-omics [RNA-seq]

Medulloblastoma is the most frequent malignant primary brain tumor in children. Despite recent advances in integrated genomics, the prognosis in children with high-risk medulloblastoma remains devastating, and new tumor-specific therapeutic approaches are needed. Here, we present an atlas of naturally presented T-cell antigens in medulloblastoma. We mapped the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-presented peptidomes of 28 tumors and performed comparative immunopeptidome profiling against an in-house benign database. Medulloblastoma proved to be a rich source of novel tumor-associated antigens, naturally presented on HLA class I and II molecules. Remarkably, most tumor-associated peptides and proteins were subgroup-specific, whereas shared presentation among all subgroups of medulloblastoma (WNT, SHH, Group 3 and Group 4) was rare. Functional testing of top-ranking novel candidate antigens demonstrated the induction of peptide-specific T-cell responses, supporting their potential for T-cell immunotherapy. This study is an in-depth mapping of naturally presented T-cell antigens in medulloblastoma. Integration of immunopeptidomics, transcriptomics, and epigenetic data led to the identification of a large set of actionable targets that can be further used for the translation into the clinical setting by facilitating the informed design of immunotherapeutic approaches to children with medulloblastoma. RNA-seq was used to profile subgroup-specific differential expression of target antigens and to characterize the immune microenvironment of medulloblastoma patients