MLANA
Overview
MLANA (Melan-A, also called MART-1) is a transmembrane protein expressed in melanocytes and melanoma cells. It is a well-established melanocyte differentiation antigen used in immunohistochemistry to confirm melanocyte/melanoma lineage. MLANA is also a T-cell-recognized tumor antigen exploited in melanoma immunotherapy (adoptive cell therapy, cancer vaccines).
Alterations observed in the corpus
- Used as a melanocyte lineage-confirmation marker in a normal human skin atlas study profiling 297 single melanocytes from 31 donors with matched DNA/RNA sequencing and Xenium spatial validation; co-expressed with PMEL, TYRP1, and MITF to define the melanocyte compartment across HighMut and LowMut subpopulations. No somatic alterations in MLANA are reported. PMID:39975212
Cancer types (linked)
- MEL (melanoma): MLANA is a canonical melanoma-lineage antigen widely used for pathologic diagnosis and as an immunotherapy target, though no melanoma-specific alteration data are primary endpoints in the citing paper. Expression studied in non-lesional skin adjacent to melanoma. PMID:39975212
Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity
Therapeutic relevance
- MLANA is a recognized melanoma tumor antigen for adoptive cell therapy (MART-1-reactive TILs, TCR-engineered T cells) and peptide vaccines, but no MLANA-directed therapeutic intervention is reported in the corpus for this paper.
Open questions
- Whether MLANA expression differs systematically between HighMut and LowMut melanocyte subpopulations in normal skin is not specifically reported. PMID:39975212
Sources
This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-04.