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Page 48
Journal of Clinical Immunology and Allergy
ISSN: 2471-304X
E u r o p e a n C o n g r e s s o n
Vaccines & Vaccination
and Gynecologic Oncology
Vaccines & Vaccination and Gynecologic Oncology 2018
O c t o b e r 2 6 - 2 7 , 2 0 1 8
B u d a p e s t , H u n g a r y
Tumor liberated protein (TLP) as potential vaccine for lung
cancer patients
Giulio Tarro
Foundation T & L de Beaumont Bonelli for cancer research, Italy
Biography
Giulio Tarro has graduated from Medicine School, Naples Uni-
versity (1962). He served many positions such as Research
Associate, Division of Virology and Cancer Research, Children’s
Hospital (1965-1968); an Assistant Professor of Research Pe-
diatrics, College Medicine (1968-1969), Cincinnati University,
Ohio; Oncological Virology Professor, Naples University (1972-
1985); Chief Division Virology (1973-2003); Head Department
Diagnostic Laboratories (2003-2006) at D Cotugno Hospital for
Infectious Diseases, Naples; an Emeritus, from 2006 to till now.
Since 2007, he is serving as Chairman Committee of Biotech-
nologies and VirusSphere, World Academy Biomedical Tech-
nologies, UNESCO; an Adjunct Professor at Biology Depart-
ment, Temple University, College of Science and Technology,
Philadelphia. He is the Recipient of the Sbarro Health Research
Organization Lifetime Achievement Award (2010). His research-
es have been concerned with the characterization of specific
virus-induced tumour antigens, which were the finger-prints left
behind in human cancer. His achievements include patents in
field; discovery of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in infant deaths
in Naples and of tumor liberated protein as a tumor associated
antigen, 55 kiloDalton protein overexpressed in lung tumors and
other epithelial adenocarcinomas.
Tumor liberatedprotein (TLP) has beenpreviously described as aTAA (complex)
present in the sera from lung cancer patients with early stage disease. Since
early detection improves overall survival in lung cancer, identification of screening
biomarkers for patients at risk for the development of this disease represents
an important target. Starting from the peptide epitope RTNKEASI previously
isolated from TLP complexes, we generated a rabbit anti-RTNKEASI serum. This
antiserum detected and immunoprecipitated a 55 kDa protein band in the lysate
of the lung cancer cell line A549. This protein band was identified as aldehyde
dehydrogenase isoform 1A1 through mass spectrometry, revealing the molecular
nature of at least one component of the previously described TLP complex. Next,
we screened a cohort of 29 lung cancer patients (all histologies), 17 patients with
non-neoplastic lung pathologies and 9 healthy donors for the presence of serum
ALDH1A1 and global serum ALDH by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. This
analysis indicated that the presence of ALDHwas highly restricted to patients with
lung cancer. Interestingly, the global ALDH test detectedmore lung cancer patients
compared to the ALDH1A1-specific test, suggesting that other ALDH isoforms
might add to the sensitivity of the assay. Our data suggest that ALDH levels may
therefore be evaluated as part of a marker panel for lung cancer screening. Finally,
the ability of the immune system to recognize a TAA, enables the development of
a vaccine approach for preventive and therapeutic application and represents a
main target of this field of research.
Giulio Tarro, Journal of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Volume: 4
DOI: 10.21767/2471-304X-C2-005
Euro Vaccines 2018