Fig. 7: A schematic summary of our findings that focal adhesion-related RNPs are frequent and common humoral antigens in tumor microenvironments.

Focal adhesion machineries complexed with ribonucleoproteins and RNA molecules are frequent humoral antigens in tumor environments. This study suggested sequence-specific trafficking of RNA molecules to focal adhesion sites in cancer cells. Such focal adhesion complexes are occasionally exposed to the outside of cancer cells (red arrowhead) and/or may be broken down and deposited in necrotic cancer stromal environments (gray RNPs); thus, they are considered to trigger and expand B cell immunity in cancer microenvironments. TLR, Toll-like receptors; RNP, ribonucleoproteins.