ArticleClinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research2011
Merkel cell polyomavirus-specific CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T-cell responses identified in Merkel cell carcinomas and blood.
Article in Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers.
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Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reprogramming engineered autologous T cells to overcome resistance in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma.Science translational medicine · 2026Trial
- Intratumoral G100, a TLR4 Agonist, Induces Antitumor Immune Responses and Tumor Regression in Patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2019Trial
- Avelumab in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: a multicentre, single-group, open-label, phase 2 trial.The Lancet. Oncology · 2016Trial
- PD-1 Blockade with Pembrolizumab in Advanced Merkel-Cell Carcinoma.The New England journal of medicine · 2016Trial
- Synthetic consensus DNA vaccines against Merkel cell polyomavirus large and small T antigens induce robust polyfunctional T cell responses.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- A reproducible pipeline for TCR β-chain repertoire analysis from thoracic tumour RNA-seq and ICI-associated cardiac immunotoxicity.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Article
- Targeting an essential viral oncoprotein with an IL-7-enhanced mRNA vaccine induces durable immunity to Merkel cell carcinoma.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Of Context, Quality, and Complexity: Fine-Combing Tumor Mutational Burden in Immunotherapy-Treated Cancers.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2025Review
- Preexisting Skin-Resident CD8 and γδ T-cell Circuits Mediate Immune Response in Merkel Cell Carcinoma and Predict Immunotherapy Efficacy.Cancer discovery · 2024Article
- Review
- Tumor Regression Following Engineered Polyomavirus-Specific T Cell Therapy in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Refractory Merkel Cell Carcinoma.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Tumor Antigens beyond the Human Exome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Circulating cancer-specific CD8 T cell frequency is associated with response to PD-1 blockade in Merkel cell carcinoma.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- Merkel cell polyomavirus-specific and CD39Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- The basic biology of NK cells and its application in tumor immunotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Possible association between polyomaviruses and gastrointestinal complications: a narrative review.Gastroenterology and hepatology from bed to bench · 2024Review
- Dynamics and specificities of T cells in cancer immunotherapy.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2023Review
- Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer.Current treatment options in oncology · 2023Review
- LAMP1 targeting of the large T antigen of Merkel cell polyomavirus results in potent CD4 T cell responses and tumor inhibition.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMerkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is prevalent in the general population, integrates into most Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC), and encodes oncoproteins required for MCC tumor growth. We sought to characterize T-cell responses directed against viral proteins that drive this cancer as a step toward immunotherapy. EXPERIMENTAL
designIntracellular cytokine cytometry, IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, and a novel HLA-A*2402-restricted MCPyV tetramer were used to identify and characterize T-cell responses against MCPyV oncoproteins in tumors and blood of MCC patients and control subjects.
resultsWe isolated virus-reactive CD8 or CD4 T cells from MCPyV-positive MCC tumors (2 of 6) but not from virus-negative tumors (0 of 4). MCPyV-specific T-cell responses were also detected in the blood of MCC patients (14 of 27) and control subjects (5 of 13). These T cells recognized a broad range of peptides derived from capsid proteins (2 epitopes) and oncoproteins (24 epitopes). HLA-A*2402-restricted MCPyV oncoprotein processing and presentation by mammalian cells led to CD8-mediated cytotoxicity. Virus-specific CD8 T cells were markedly enriched among tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as compared with blood, implying intact T-cell trafficking into the tumor. Although tetramer-positive CD8 T cells were detected in the blood of 2 of 5 HLA-matched MCC patients, these cells failed to produce IFN-γ when challenged ex vivo with peptide.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that MCC tumors often develop despite the presence of T cells specific for MCPyV T-Ag oncoproteins. The identified epitopes may be candidates for peptide-specific vaccines and tumor- or virus-specific adoptive immunotherapies to overcome immune evasion mechanisms in MCC patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.