Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biology

Reader 1

Kyle Jay

Reader 2

Kevin McBride

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that the presence of B cells, in compartments called tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) within the tumor microenvironment (TME), are more pronounced in responders of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy compared to non responders. Although our understanding of how B cells modulate ICB treatment outcomes is incomplete, we hypothesize that tumor-derived B cells in patient responders produce antibodies that recognize tumor specific antigens and can elicit an antitumor response. In this study, we characterized the binding properties of 99 out of 578 antibodies derived from melanoma patients treated with ICB immunotherapy. Patient-derived melanoma antibodies were analyzed with flow cytometry against three different cell lines, HEK293 as a “non melanoma cell line” and A375 and SK-MEL-5 as two examples of malignant melanoma cell lines. We found that of the 99 antibodies analyzed, 61 bind nonspecific targets and 17 bind specifically melanoma associated targets. Our analysis establishes that a significant amount of melanoma tissue derived antibodies generated within the tumor microenvironment or associated lymph nodes can identify tumor associated antigens. Further analysis is underway to evaluate the anti-tumor potential of these antibodies, which can pave the way for more effective cancer therapies.

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