MELBOURNE, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia have produced a first-of-its-kind catalog of pediatric cancers, offering fresh clues for developing targeted immunotherapies for young patients.
The Children's Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA), based at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Australia, contains the world's largest collection of more than 400 high-risk pediatric cancer cell lines for AI-driven treatment testing and analysis, a media release of the Hudson Institute said Monday.
The CCMA is creating the pediatric cancer catalog, representing a detailed resource of high-potential immune targets in childhood cancers, to accelerate the discovery of new therapies and biomarkers for childhood cancers, the release said.
Childhood cancers lead to disease-related deaths and respond poorly to adult-style immunotherapies, and current therapies can affect children's growing bodies and have lasting side effects, it said.
Researchers analyzed over 200 high-risk pediatric cancer cell lines in the CCMA's collection to identify a crucial characteristic of each one, known as the HLA (human leukocyte antigens) type and potential neoantigens it presents to the immune system, it added.
"The HLA are proteins on the surface of cells that the immune system uses to distinguish between 'self' and 'non-self.' Using this information, we predicted which neoantigens each cancer model might produce and present," said the study's senior author Claire Xin Sun from the Hudson Institute and Australia's Monash University.
"Neoantigens are small, abnormal protein pieces formed when cancer cells mutate, and different HLA types can present different neoantigens to the immune system," Sun said, adding that knowing the HLA type helps to determine which neoantigens can actually be recognized.
Published in iScience, the study helps researchers identify which tumors have actionable antigens, which make them good candidates for immunotherapy to guide safer, more effective immunotherapies, the researchers said. ■