BAGE1 ELISA Kits

A Þrst BAGE (B melanoma antigen) gene, BAGE1, was identiÞed because it encodes a human tumour antigen recognised by a cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL). BAGE encodes a putative protein of43 amino acids and the antigen recognised by the CTL consists of BAGE1-encoded peptide AARAVFLAL bound toHLA-Cw16 molecules. A study characterised five new BAGE genes mapping to the juxtacentromeric regions of human chromosomes 13 and 21 and nine BAGE gene fragments mapping to the juxtacentromeric regions of chromosomes 9, 13, 18, and 21. BAGE sequences (genes and gene fragments) share extensive regions of high nucleotide identity: nucleotide identity is higher among genes (97 Ð 99%) than between genes and gene fragments (90 Ð 96%). BAGE1a was found to be expressed in tumors of different histological types. It is silent in normal and foetal tissues except for testis.

Although BAGE2 and BAGE3 differ only in two amino acids, transcripts encoding these proteins are unlikely to be allelic because they have 1.2% nucleotide divergence. Gene BAGE is expressed in 22% of melanomas, 30% of infiltrating bladder carcinomas, 10% of mammary carcinomas, 8% of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, and 6% of non-small cell lung carcinomas. Several other unrelated families of genes with a pattern of expression similar to that of BAGE1 have been identiÞed, notably the MAGE, GAGE and LAGE/NY-ESO-1families. The antigens recognised by T lymphocytes that are encoded by BAGE, MAGE, GAGE and LAGE/NY-ESO-1 families are, therefore, strictly tumor-speciÞc and may prove useful for cancer immunotherapy. BAGE2, which is expressed in 22% of melanomas and has a putative coding region of 309 residues and is the most promising.