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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Open Biology

Identification of expressed endogenous retroviral element associated long terminal repeats in devil facial tumour cells

  • Anuk Kruawan1
  • Maximilian R. Stammnitz2
  • Richard Wilson3
  • Sri H. Ramarathinam4
  • Chrissie E. B. Ong1
  • Kirsten A. Fairfax5
  • Amanda L. Patchett6
  • A. Bruce Lyons6
  • Andy Flies1
6 affiliations
  1. 1College of Health and Medicine, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania 1 , Hobart, Australia
  2. 2Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST) 4 , Barcelona, Spain
  3. 3Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania 2 , Hobart, Australia
  4. 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University 5 , Clayton, Australia
  5. 5School of Medicine, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania 3 , Hobart, Australia
  6. 6Aquaculture Health Team, Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 6 , Hobart, Australia
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Abstract

The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population has undergone a major decline in the wild owing to the epidemics of two transmissible cancers known as devil facial tumours (DFT1 and DFT2). A multipronged conservation strategy is in place, but a vaccine that prevents devils from developing devil facial tumour disease would be a major step towards recovering the wild devil population. Critical to an effective DFT vaccine are target antigens. Putative non-coding regions of genomes have been identified as potential tumour-specific antigens for human cancer. These non-coding regions include long terminal repeats (LTRs) of endogenous retroviral elements (ERVs). We identified 11 193 ERV LTR transcripts that were expressed in DFT1 or DFT2 transcriptomes but not in healthy tissue samples. Using a proteogenomic approach, we identified 33 ERV LTR peptides unique to DFT1 and/or DFT2 immunopeptidomes; five of these were validated in subsequent screens with synthetic peptides. The ERV LTR peptides identified in this study can be tested as vaccine targets in DFT1 and DFT2 vaccines. This method can be applied to other species for the development of cancer vaccine targets that may be shared across tumour types.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{kruawan2026identification,
  title = {{Identification of expressed endogenous retroviral element associated long terminal repeats in devil facial tumour cells}},
  author = {Anuk Kruawan and Maximilian R. Stammnitz and Richard Wilson and Sri H. Ramarathinam and Chrissie E. B. Ong and Kirsten A. Fairfax and Amanda L. Patchett and A. Bruce Lyons and Andy Flies},
  journal = {Open Biology},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1098/rsob.250430},
  url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsob/article/16/10/250430/483544/Identification-of-expressed-endogenous-retroviral},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Identification of expressed endogenous retroviral element associated long terminal repeats in devil facial tumour cells
AU  - Anuk Kruawan
AU  - Maximilian R. Stammnitz
AU  - Richard Wilson
AU  - Sri H. Ramarathinam
AU  - Chrissie E. B. Ong
AU  - Kirsten A. Fairfax
AU  - Amanda L. Patchett
AU  - A. Bruce Lyons
AU  - Andy Flies
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
JO  - Open Biology
DO  - 10.1098/rsob.250430
UR  - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsob/article/16/10/250430/483544/Identification-of-expressed-endogenous-retroviral
AB  - The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population has undergone a major decline in the wild owing to the epidemics of two transmissible cancers known as devil facial tumours (DFT1 and DFT2). A multipronged conservation strategy is in place, but a vaccine that prevents devils from developing devil facial tumour disease would be a major step towards recovering the wild devil population. Critical to an effective DFT vaccine are target antigens. Putative non-coding regions of genomes have been identified as potential tumour-specific antigens for human cancer. These non-coding regions include long terminal repeats (LTRs) of endogenous retroviral elements (ERVs). We identified 11 193 ERV LTR transcripts that were expressed in DFT1 or DFT2 transcriptomes but not in healthy tissue samples. Using a proteogenomic approach, we identified 33 ERV LTR peptides unique to DFT1 and/or DFT2 immunopeptidomes; five of these were validated in subsequent screens with synthetic peptides. The ERV LTR peptides identified in this study can be tested as vaccine targets in DFT1 and DFT2 vaccines. This method can be applied to other species for the development of cancer vaccine targets that may be shared across tumour types.
SN  - 2046-2441
ER  -