Non-canonical splicing junctions between exons and transposable elements represent a source of immunogenic recurrent neo-antigens in cancer patients

ost characterized tumor antigens are ‘genomic’, i.e. encoded by canonical, non-canonical or somatically mutated genomic sequences. We investigate here the presentation and immunogenicity of tumor antigens derived from non-canonical mRNA splicing events between coding exons and transposable elements (TEs). Comparing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), an immunogenic tumor type, and diverse non-tumor tissues, we identify several thousand splicing junctions between exons and diverse TE classes. A subset of these junctions is both tumor-specific and shared across patients. HLA-I peptidomic identifies peptides encoded by tumor-specific junctions in primary NSCLC samples and lung tumor cell lines. Recurrent junction-encoded peptides are immunogenic in vitro and CD8+ T cells specific for junction-encoded epitopes are present in tumors and tumor-draining lymph nodes from NSCLC patients. We conclude that non-canonical splicing junctions between exons and TEs represent a source of recurrent, immunogenic tumor-specific antigens in NSCLC cancer patients.