암 진단지표로서 MAGE의 특성

Abstract

The human MAGE A family encodes products that can be recognized by autologous cytotoxic T cells. Because MAGE genes are silent in most normal tissues except testis but are activated in a variety of neoplastic lesions, MAGE antigens represent ideal targets for cancer diagnosis and immunotherapy. MAGA A family consists of 12 subtypes, and there are high DNA homology between subtypes. Here, I discussed the importance of MAGE as cancer diagnosis marker and molecular methods for the detection of several MAGE subtypes together by RT-PCR using common primers.