Coiled Coil Domain Containing Protein 68 (CCDC68)

CCDC68 is expressed in bone marrow, colon, small intestine, spleen, testis, trachea and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). CTCL are a group of skin neoplasms that originate from T lymphocytes and are difficult to treat in advanced stages. The present study is aimed at the identification of tumor-specific antigens from a human testis cDNA library using human sera known as the SEREX approach. A cDNA library from normal testicle tissue was prepared and approximately 2 million recombinants were screened with sera from Sézary Syndrome and Mycosis fungoides patients. A total of 28 positive clones belonging to 15 different genes/ORFs were identified, including five hitherto unknown sequences. The SCP-1-like gene and cTAGE-1 were shown to be immunogenic and immunologically tumor-specific and may therefore be candidates for immunotherapy targeting CTCL.