Gene-expression profiles of non-tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells

Non-tumor-reactive T cells are characterized by the inabilitzy to lyse autologous tumor cells, low to intermediate avidity TCRs and lack of NY-ESO-1 peptide tetramer binding. However most strikingly, non-tumor-reactive T cells are characterized by a molecular program associated with ‘division arrest anergy’ with elevated expression of the inhibitory molecule p27kip1. This is accompanied by elevated expression of inhibitory molecules and reduced levels of transcription factors involved in T cell activation. Frequency analysis of the inhibited T cell population using the established molecular fingerprint as a novel biomarker might be applied for cancer vaccine development and optimization. Keywords: cell type comparison Genome-wide transcriptional changes in human non-tumor-reactive CD8+ T cell clones from NY-ESO-1 expressin tumor patients after peptide vaccination using Affymetrix HGU133A arrays.