IL-13RA2/CD213a2 (E7U7B) Rabbit mAb #85677

Cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are a family of more than 100 proteins whose normal expression is largely restricted to immune privileged germ cells of the testis, ovary, and trophoblast cells of the placenta. Although most normal somatic tissues are void of CTA expression, due to epigenetic silencing of gene expression, their expression is upregulated in a wide variety of human solid and liquid tumors (1,2). As such, CTAs have garnered much attention as attractive targets for a variety of immunotherapy-based approaches to selectively attack tumors (3).

IL-13 receptor alpha-2 (IL-13RA2/CD213a2) is a type-I monomeric transmembrane glycoprotein and component of the IL-4/IL-13 receptor system. Research studies have shown that IL-13RA2 controls IL-13 signaling by serving as a high affinity decoy receptor for IL-13, but not IL-4, in a variety of cellular contexts (4,5). Some studies, however, have suggested that signaling through IL-13RA2 expressed on immunosuppressive myeloid cells facilitates tumor immune evasion through the production of TGF-β (6,7).

IL-13RA2 displays a highly restricted expression pattern in normal human tissues, which positions this receptor as a potentially novel therapeutic target for multiple types of solid tumors (8-10). Indeed, research studies have shown that IL-13RA2 is highly over expressed in glioblastomas (11), which has prompted investigation of different IL-13RA2-directed immunotherapies to treat this cancer (12-14).