Next Generation Sequencing: an indispensable tool for Neoantigen discovery

2019-06-09 by Quick Biology Inc.

Immunotherapy is a treatment that helps the body’s own immune system fight cancer. In our body, each cell presents peptides (antigens) on the surface, some of the antigens are unique in the tumor cell surface, we call them “neoantigens”.  Boosting immune reaction on these neoantigens will help us kill the tumor in a natural way. Neoantigen discovery is the key to personalized cancer vaccines. Currently, neoantigen prediction greatly benefits from NGS technology.  For instances, 1) whole genome sequencing for tumor mutation burden analysis. 2) whole transcriptome sequencing for expressed variants based on the fact --- expressed variants are more likely to be immunogenic.  3) HLA-typing for neopeptides binding and presenting on MHC analysis (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Schematic illustration of neoantigen discovery (from ref 1)

immunotherapy_NGS_quick biology.png

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See resource:

  1. 1. Neoantigen Vaccine Delivery for Personalized Anticancer Immunotherapy.  Front. Immunol. 2018 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.01499
  2. 2. Immunotherapy, the Next Generation of Cancer Treatment. Illumina https://www.illumina.com/content/dam/illumina-marketing/documents/products/appspotlights/ngs-immuno-oncology-application-spotlight-1170-2016-005.pdf