Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 26, 2026

Isolation and Characterization of Tumor-initiating Cells from Sarcoma Patient-derived Xenografts
Published on: June 13, 2019
Identification of immune-related tumor antigens and immune subtypes in osteosarcoma
Mingshu Zhang1, Gongping Xu1, Chunyang Xi1
1Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Purpose:
The development of tumor vaccines has become a hot topic in immunotherapy for osteosarcoma (OS); however, more tumor antigens with stronger immunogenicity need to be identified.
Methods:
We downloaded six sets of gene expression profile data from online databases. The overexpressed genes were analyzed, intersected, and used to calculate the immune infiltration abundance in the TARGET OS dataset based on their expression matrix. Potential tumor antigen genes were identified based on whether they exhibited a high correlation with the antigen-presenting cells (APCs). A total of 1330 immune-related genes (IRGs) from the ImmPort website were retrieved based on their expression, and the Consensus Cluster method was used to obtain immune subtypes of the OS samples. Prognosis, immune microenvironment, and sensitivity to drugs were compared among the immune subtypes.
Results:
In total, 680 genes were overexpressed in at least two datasets, of which TREM2, TNFRSF12A, and THY1 were positively correlated with different APCs. Based on the expression matrix of 1330 IRGs in TARGET-OS, two immune subtypes, IS1 and IS2, were identified. The prognosis of the IS1 subtype was better than that of IS2, the expression of immune checkpoint (ICP)-related genes was higher in patients with the IS1 subtype, and immune cell infiltration and sensitivity to 16 drugs were generally higher in IS1 subtype patients.
Conclusion:
We identified three APC-correlated genes that can be considered to code for potential novel tumor antigens for OS vaccines. Two immune subtypes in patients with OS were identified to implement personalized treatments using mRNA vaccines.
Related Concept Videos
Cell-mediated Immune Responses
Bone Marrow Sampling and Transplants
The transplant begins with high doses of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which aim to destroy the...
Cells of the Innate Immune Response
Phagocytes
Phagocytes police the peripheral tissues by removing cellular debris and responding to the invasion of foreign substances or pathogens. Many phagocytes attack and remove microorganisms even before lymphocytes detect them. The human body has two general...
Antigens Involved in Adaptive Immunity
Complete Antigens
Complete antigens possess both immunogenicity and reactivity.
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...
Tumor Immunotherapy

