Transposons are known to sometimes act as alternative promoters for genes, but their reactivation due to epigenetic changes and roles in on...
Transposons are known to sometimes act as alternative promoters for genes, but their reactivation due to epigenetic changes and roles in oncogenesis have remained underexplored. This ectopic expression can give rise to chimeric transcripts and cancer-specific peptides that could be exploited as targets in cancer immunotherapy. A paper in Nature Genetics by Shah et al. reports a bioinformatics workflow called TEProf2 for identifying aberrant transcripts containing transposons spliced into genes. Analysis of over 10,000 tumor samples comprising 33 different cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas, together with publicly available mass spectrometry data, led to identification of 1,068 novel chimeric proteins bound to HLA on tumor cell surfaces. Their presentation on the extracellular surface permits exploration of immunotherapy strategies.
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 per month
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Get just this article for as long as you need it
$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fudge, J.B. Transposon–gene chimeras move up as cancer epitopes.
Nat Biotechnol 41, 616 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01811-x
Download citation
-
Published:
-
Issue Date:
COMMENTS