Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) Literature review

Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) - Literature review Example The antigen HOM-TES-14 which is repeatedly encountered during CDNA expression library is encoded by the SCP-1 gene, which is mainly expressed during prophase of mitosis in spermatocytes and involved in homologous chromosomes pairing therefore is less restricted in its expression. CTA is expressed less in non-seminomatous germ cell tumors than seminomas germ cell tumors (Chen, et al., 2013). There are CTA that are encoded on the X-chromosome called the X-CTA genes and those that are not referred to as non-CTA genes. More than half of all CTA are X-CTA and often constitute multi-gene families organized in well-defined clusters along the X-chromosome where different members are arranged into complex direct and inverted repeats. The genes encoding non-X-CT antigens are distributed throughout the genome and are mostly single copies (Cheng, et al., 2011). The X-CTA genes are expressed basically on the spermatogonia that are proliferating germ cells while non-X-CTA are expressed in the late stages of differentiation such as spermatogenesis in the normal testis. MAGE-A3, MAGE-8, MAGE-A10, XAGE-2 and XAGE-3 have been found to be expressed in the placenta in addition to testicular expression. The CTAs have different functions as various CTAs are expressed during different stages of spermatogenesis (Fratta, et al., 2011). In tumors of diverse histotypes, CTAs are largely distributed. Among various kinds of tumors, CTA varies and is depicted by data from the evaluation of its transcripts (Fratta, et al., 2011). The division of cells resulting to nuclei whereby the total chromosome number is reduced by a half its original number is termed as meiosis. The nuclei that arise from the parent nuclei are normally same as the parent nuclei but they genetic makeup is normally different. This is because genetic diversity is permitted during reproduction. Meiosis is composed of two phases, Meiosis I and II. It is through these stages that meiosis gives rise to