Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population

Colorectal cancer is a complex disease in which uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells occurs in the large intestine (colon or rectum). The study of tumor-specific antigens (neoantigens), molecules that interact with the immune system, has been extensively explored as a possible therapy called in si...

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Main Authors: Diego Morazán-Fernández, José Arturo Molina-Mora
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica 2022-11-01
Series:Tecnología en Marcha
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Online Access:https://172.20.14.50/index.php/tec_marcha/article/view/6458
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author Diego Morazán-Fernández
José Arturo Molina-Mora
author_facet Diego Morazán-Fernández
José Arturo Molina-Mora
author_sort Diego Morazán-Fernández
collection DOAJ
description Colorectal cancer is a complex disease in which uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells occurs in the large intestine (colon or rectum). The study of tumor-specific antigens (neoantigens), molecules that interact with the immune system, has been extensively explored as a possible therapy called in silico cancer vaccine. Cancer vaccine studies have been triggered by the current high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies. However, there is no universal bioinformatic protocol to study tumor-antigens with DNA sequencing data. We propose a bioinformatic protocol to detect tumor-specific antigens associated with single nucleotide variants (SNVs) or “mutations” in colorectal cancer and their interaction with frequent HLA alleles (complex that present antigens to immune cells) in the Costa Rican Central Valley population. We used public data of human exome (DNA regions that produce functional products, including proteins). A variant calling analysis was implemented to detect tumorspecific SNVs, in comparison to healthy tissue. We then predicted and analyzed the peptides (protein fragments, the tumor specific antigens) derived from these variants, in the context of its affinity with frequent alleles of HLA type I of the Costa Rican population. We found 28 non-silent SNVs, present in 26 genes. The protocol yielded 23 strong binders peptides derived from the SNVs for frequent alleles (greater than 8%) for the Costa Rican population at the HLA-A, B and C loci. It is concluded that the standardized protocol was able to identify neoantigens and this can be considered a first step for the eventual design of a colorectal cancer vaccine for Costa Rican patients. To our knowledge, this is the first study of an in silico cancer vaccine using DNA sequencing data in the context of the Costa Rican HLA alleles.
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spelling doaj-art-5371ac54f5e544fba726ed6045da59ea2025-08-20T01:56:39ZengInstituto Tecnológico de Costa RicaTecnología en Marcha0379-39822215-32412022-11-0135810.18845/tm.v35i8.6458Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley populationDiego Morazán-FernándezJosé Arturo Molina-Mora Colorectal cancer is a complex disease in which uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells occurs in the large intestine (colon or rectum). The study of tumor-specific antigens (neoantigens), molecules that interact with the immune system, has been extensively explored as a possible therapy called in silico cancer vaccine. Cancer vaccine studies have been triggered by the current high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies. However, there is no universal bioinformatic protocol to study tumor-antigens with DNA sequencing data. We propose a bioinformatic protocol to detect tumor-specific antigens associated with single nucleotide variants (SNVs) or “mutations” in colorectal cancer and their interaction with frequent HLA alleles (complex that present antigens to immune cells) in the Costa Rican Central Valley population. We used public data of human exome (DNA regions that produce functional products, including proteins). A variant calling analysis was implemented to detect tumorspecific SNVs, in comparison to healthy tissue. We then predicted and analyzed the peptides (protein fragments, the tumor specific antigens) derived from these variants, in the context of its affinity with frequent alleles of HLA type I of the Costa Rican population. We found 28 non-silent SNVs, present in 26 genes. The protocol yielded 23 strong binders peptides derived from the SNVs for frequent alleles (greater than 8%) for the Costa Rican population at the HLA-A, B and C loci. It is concluded that the standardized protocol was able to identify neoantigens and this can be considered a first step for the eventual design of a colorectal cancer vaccine for Costa Rican patients. To our knowledge, this is the first study of an in silico cancer vaccine using DNA sequencing data in the context of the Costa Rican HLA alleles. https://172.20.14.50/index.php/tec_marcha/article/view/6458NeopeptideColorectal cancerCancer vaccineSingle nucleotide variantsHLA
spellingShingle Diego Morazán-Fernández
José Arturo Molina-Mora
Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
Tecnología en Marcha
Neopeptide
Colorectal cancer
Cancer vaccine
Single nucleotide variants
HLA
title Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
title_full Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
title_fullStr Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
title_full_unstemmed Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
title_short Colorectal cancer vaccines: in silico identification of tumor-specific antigens associated with frequent HLA-I alleles in the costa rican Central Valley population
title_sort colorectal cancer vaccines in silico identification of tumor specific antigens associated with frequent hla i alleles in the costa rican central valley population
topic Neopeptide
Colorectal cancer
Cancer vaccine
Single nucleotide variants
HLA
url https://172.20.14.50/index.php/tec_marcha/article/view/6458
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AT josearturomolinamora colorectalcancervaccinesinsilicoidentificationoftumorspecificantigensassociatedwithfrequenthlaiallelesinthecostaricancentralvalleypopulation