Human leukocyte antigen‐E alleles and expression in patients with serous ovarian cancer

Cancer Science

Hui Zheng²  Renquan Lu²  Suhong Xie²  Xuemei Wen¹  Hongling Wang¹  Xiang Gao² 

[1] Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China;Department of Clinical Laboratory, Shanghai Cancer Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

关键词: Allele;    human leukocyte antigen‐E;    natural killer cells;    serous ovarian cancer;    thermal stability;   

DOI  :  10.1111/cas.12641

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) is one of the most extensively studied non-classical MHC class I molecules that is almost non-polymorphic. Only two alleles (HLA-E*0101 and HLA-E*0103) are found in worldwide populations, and suggested to be functional differences between these variants. The HLA-E molecule can contribute to the escape of cancer cells from host immune surveillance. However, it is still unknown whether HLA-E gene polymorphisms might play a role in cancer immune escape. To explore the association between HLA-E alleles and the susceptibility to serous ovarian cancer (SOC), 85 primary SOC patients and 100 healthy women were enrolled. Here, we indicated that high frequency of HLA-E*0103 allele existed in SOC patients by the allele-specific quantitative real-time PCR method. The levels of HLA-E protein expression in SOC patients with the HLA-E*0103 allele were higher than those with the HLA-E*0101 allele using immunohistochemistry analysis. The cell surface expression and functional differences between the two alleles were verified by K562 cells transfected with HLA-E*0101 or HLA-E*0103 allelic heavy chains. The HLA-E*0103 allele made the transfer of the HLA-E molecule to the cell surface easier, and HLA-E/peptides complex more stable. These differences ultimately influenced the function of natural killer cells, showing that the cells transfected with HLA-E*0103 allele inhibited natural killer cells to lysis. This study reveals a novel mechanism regarding the susceptibility to SOC, which is correlated with the HLA-E*0103 allele.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND   
© 2015 The Authors. Cancer Science published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.