Despite the recent development of effective therapeutic agents against
multiple myeloma (MM), new therapeutic approaches, including
immunotherapies, remain to be developed. Here we identified novel human leucocyte
antigen (
HLA)-A*0201 (HLA-A2)-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)
epitopes from a B cell specific molecule HLA-DOβ (DOB) as a potential target for MM. By
DNA microarray analysis, the HLA-DOB expression in MM cells was significantly higher than that in normal plasma cells. Twenty-five
peptides were predicted to bind to
HLA-A2 from the amino acid sequence of HLA-DOB. When screened for the immunogenicity in HLA-A2-transgenic mice immunized with HLA-DOB
cDNA, 4
peptides were substantially immunogenic. By mass spectrometry analysis of
peptides eluted from HLA-A2-immunoprecipitates of MM cell lines, only two
epitopes, HLA-DOB232-240 (FLLGLIFLL) and HLA-DOB185-193 (VMLEMTPEL), were confirmed for their physical presence on cell surface. When healthy donor blood was repeatedly stimulated in vitro with these two
peptides and assessed by
antigen-specific γ-
interferon secretion, HLA-DOB232-240 was more immunogenic than HLA-DOB185-193 . Additionally, the HLA-DOB232-240 -specific CTLs, but not the HLA-DOB185-193 -specific CTLs, displayed an major histocompatibility complex class I-restricted reactivity against MM cell lines expressing both
HLA-A2 and HLA-DOB. Taken together, based on the physical presence on tumour cell surface and high immunogenicity, HLA-DOB232-240 might be useful for developing a novel
immunotherapy against MM.