BCL2A1 neoepitope–elicited cytotoxic T lymphocytes are a promising individualized immunotherapy of pancreatic cancer

Abstract Conventional treatments have shown a limited efficacy for pancreatic cancer, and immunotherapy is an emerging option for treatment of this highly fatal malignancy. Neoantigen is critical to improving the efficacy of tumor-specific immunotherapy. The cancer and peripheral blood specimens from an HLA-A0201–positive pancreatic cancer patient were subjected to next-generation sequencing, and bioinformatics analyses were performed to screen high-affinity and highly stable neoepitopes. The activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) by dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitope targeting a BCL2A1 mutant epitope was investigated, and the cytotoxicity of mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitope–specific CTLs to pancreatic cancer cells was evaluated. The mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitope was found to present a high immunogenicity and induce CTLs activation and proliferation, and these CTLs were cytotoxic to mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitope–loaded T2 cells and pancreatic cancer PANC-1-Neo and A2-BxPC-3-Neo cells that overexpressed mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitopes, appearing to be a targeting neoepitope specificity. In addition, high BCL2A1 expression correlated with a low 5-yr progression-free interval among pancreatic cancer patients. Our findings provide experimental supports to individualized T cell therapy targeting mutBCL2A111–20 neoepitopes, and provide an option of immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer.