Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1520505

Bioinformatics analysis reveals novel tumor antigens and immune subtypes of skin cutaneous melanoma contributing to mRNA vaccine development

Provisionally accepted
Ronghua Yang Ronghua Yang 1He Jia He Jia 2*Deni Kang Deni Kang 1Yao Chen Yao Chen 1Jie Huang Jie Huang 1Jiehua Li Jiehua Li 2Xinyi Wang Xinyi Wang 1Sitong Zhou Sitong Zhou 2
  • 1 Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 First People's Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is a common malignant skin cancer with high mortality and recurrence rates. Although the mRNA vaccine is a promising strategy for cancer treatment, its application against SKCM remains confusing. In this study, we employed computational bioinformatics analysis to explore SKCM-associated antigens for an mRNA vaccine and suitable populations for vaccination . We discovered five tumor antigens (P2RY6, PLA2G2D, RBM47, SEL1L3, and SPIB) that are significantly increased and mutated, which correlate with the survival of patients and the presence of immune cells that present these antigens. Our analysis revealed two distinct immune subtypes among the SKCM samples. Immune subtype 1 was associated with poorer clinical outcomes and exhibited low levels of immune activity, characterized by fewer mutations and lower immune cell infiltration. In contrast, immune subtype 2 showed higher immune activity and better patient outcomes. Subsequently, the immune landscape of SKCM exhibited immune heterogeneity among patients, and a key gene module that is enriched in immunerelated pathways was identified. Our findings suggest that the identified tumor antigens could serve as valuable targets for developing mRNA vaccines against SKCM, particularly for patients in immune subtype 1. This research provides valuable insights into personalized immunotherapy approaches for this challenging cancer and highlights the advantages of bioinformatics in identifying immune targets and optimizing treatment approaches.

    Keywords: Bioinformatics analysis, Skin cutaneous melanoma, mRNA vaccine, Tumor antigens, Immune subtypes, Immune landscape

    Received: 05 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Jia, Kang, Chen, Huang, Li, Wang and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: He Jia, First People's Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.