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Comment
. 2010 Sep 16;116(11):1824-5.
doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-06-292912.

Immune rage against MAGE unleashed

Jeffrey J Molldrem  1 , Gheath Alatrash
Affiliations
Comment

Immune rage against MAGE unleashed

Jeffrey J Molldrem et al. Blood. .

Abstract

In this issue of Blood, Goodyear and colleagues show that CD8 T-cell immunity against melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE)—a cancer testis antigen (CTA) not normally expressed in hematopoietic cells—is induced in leukemia patients treated with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors azacitidine (AZA) and sodium valproate (VPA), respectively. The authors report that up-regulation of MAGE in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by AZA plus VPA is associated with major clinical responses and an increase of MAGE-specific effector T cells. Will this observation lead to testing of these drugs in immune-therapy strategies?

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest disclosure: The authors declare no competing financial interests. ■

Comment on

References

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