Immunogenic Peptides of Xage-1

A composition comprising:

• i) an isolated immunogenic peptide of fifty or fewer amino acids comprising the sequence of X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:
• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and
• X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T;
• and,
• ii) a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.

A method of inhibiting growth of an XAGE-1-expressing cancer cell in a subject, said method comprising administering to said subject a purified peptide of fifty or fewer amino acids, said peptide comprising a sequence of X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and
• X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T
• wherein administration of said peptide to said subject stimulates or activates cytotoxic T lymphocytes, thereby inhibiting growth of said XAGE-1-expressing cancer cell.

An isolated nucleic acid encoding a peptide of fifty or fewer amino acids, said peptide comprising a sequence X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and
• X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T.

A method of inhibiting the growth of an XAGE-1-expressing cancer cell in a subject, said method comprising administering to said subject an isolated nucleic acid sequence encoding a peptide of fifty or fewer amino acids, said peptide comprising of the sequence X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T;
• wherein administration of said nucleic acid sequence results in expression of said peptide, which expression stimulates or activates cytotoxic T lymphocytes, thereby inhibiting the growth of said XAGE-1-expressing cancer cell.

A method for stimulating or expanding T cells, or both, comprising contacting T cells with a synthetic or recombinant amino acid sequence X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T;
• thereby stimulating or expanding said T cells, or both.

A method for stimulating or expanding T cells comprising contacting said T cells with an antigen presenting cell pulsed with, transduced to express, or differentiated from a cell transduced with a nucleic acid encoding, an amino acid sequence of X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T.

A method of inhibiting the growth of a cancer cell expressing XAGE-1 comprising contacting said cell with an isolated cytotoxic T lymphocyte specific for a peptide comprising an amino acid sequence of X1X2X3PSAPSPX4 (SEQ ID NO:5), wherein:

• X1 can be any amino acid;
• X2 can be L, M, A, I, V, or T;
• X3 can be a hydrophobic residue, methionine, or alanine;
• and X4 can be V, M, L, A, I, or T.