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MAGEA4 is Hot Right Now!

Jul 16, 2018

What makes MAGEA4 a hot target?

Melanoma Antigen Gene (MAGE) type A4 acts as an activator of Trans-lesion synthesis, an error-prone mechanism for DNA repair. Interest in the antigen began when the MAGE proteins were found to only express in the testes, placenta, and several types of tumors. This differentiation made MAGEA4 a perfect immunotherapeutic target, and the excitement in the research community ignited. A cancer vaccine targeting MAGEA4 entered clinical trials in 2009. Interest peaked when MAGEA4 was identified as present in some of the most dangerous malignant tumors types. Today MAGEA4 shows up as a target in clinical trials in the US, China, and Japan including this experiential treatment for Rhabdomyosarcoma.

MAGEA4 and the explosion of immuno-oncology

There are hundreds of immuno-oncology products in the pipeline. Each one of those technologies is built on at least one biomarker like MAGEA4. But, what makes MAGEA4 stand out of the crowd of biomarkers? The value of a biomarker as a target is determined by three critical factors. First, how much normal expression is going on in the body or what is the likelihood of off-target effects? The most valuable biomarkers are those with the least natural expression in non-tumor tissues. This lesson was learned in a fatal clinical trial involving MAGEA3. MAGEA4 only expresses in the testes and placenta making it a high-value biomarker. Especially because not everyone has testes. The second factor of importance is the patient population size. MAGEA4 is found in many different cancer types making it doubly valuable. Third, researchers consider if immuno-oncology treatment, targeting the biomarker, can improve treatment over existing therapeutics. MAGEA4 is present in many malignant tumors or those hardest to treat today. Thus, MAGEA4 is a triple threat biomarker.

How can OriGene be of service?

Let?s say you want to create a cellular model expressing MAGEA4. OriGene has 33 version of MAGEA4 lentiviral particles ready to ship. Several options allow you to choose your tag, version of the protein and model organism.

Maybe you want to make a quick publication about the expression of MAGEA4 in various cancers. With OriGene?s TissueScan you can use our panels of normalized cDNA from clinical cancer samples to screen for biomarkers like MAGEA4 quickly. Using tissue scans, you can skip tissue collection, pathology verification, and RNA conversion because it has all been done for you.

Perhaps you want to determine the function of MAGEA4 in Rhabdomyosarcoma. OriGene has shRNA vectors to silence MAGEA4. After selecting a model, you could study the phenotypic differences and expression profiles in the Rhabdomyosarcoma vs. shMAGEA4-Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Whatever you are trying to discover regarding MAGEA4 OriGene has a solution to help.

You can also vies all of our 180 MAGEA4 products available at OriGene.

The Radical

MAGEA4 is so popular that some, more radical, studies have been performed. For instance, a group based out of Gunma University built a transgenic silkworm to produce whole MAGEA4 as a potential source of cancer vaccine product. They even tested the CD4+ T cell response to ensure their production mechanism was suitable. MAGEA4 is so hot right now its amino acid sequence was set to music.


  1. Motokawa, Y., Kokubo, M., Kuwabara, N., Tatematsu, K., Sezutsu, H., Takahashi, H., & ... Takeda, S. (2018). Melanoma antigen family A4 protein produced by transgenic silkworms induces antitumor immune responses. Experimental And Therapeutic Medicine, 15(3), 2512-2518. doi:10.3892/etm.2018.5703
  2. Iura, K., Kohashi, K., Ishii, T. et al. Virchows Arch (2017) 471: 383. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1007/s00428-017-2206-z

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