Loss of ribosomal protein uL14 enables tumor escape from T cell immunosurveillance

Anna Dopler, Edwin S Kyei-Baffour, Mandy Kerkhoff, Ferhat Alkan, Yuval Malka, Kelly Hoefakker, Rob van der Kammen, Liesbeth Hoekman, Onno Bleijerveld, Antonia Bradaric, Maarten Altelaar, Jonathan W Yewdell, Pia Kvistborg, William J Faller*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

Abstract

The presentation of peptides on HLA molecules is essential to CD8+ T cell responses. Here, we show that loss of uL14 significantly downregulates the expression of antigen processing and presentation (APP) components in melanoma cell lines. Peptides generated following knockdown show different characteristics, with altered peptide charge, and differences in anchor residue positions. These peptides also have lower predicted binding to the HLA alleles and a shorter predicted HLA-peptide complex half-life. These result in a functional difference in APP, and knockdown of uL14 causes a reduction in the ability of CD8+ T cells to recognize and kill melanoma cells in a co-culture assay. Together, our data suggest that loss of uL14 alters the peptide pool available for presentation and thus may act as an escape mechanism from tumor immune surveillance.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberzcaf024
Number of pages12
JournalNAR Cancer
Volume7
Issue number3
Early online date30 Aug 2025
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 30 Aug 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025 Published by Oxford University Press.

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