Kidney Associated Antigen 1 (KAAG1)

The antigenic peptide was encoded by an antisense transcript of the RU2 gene, KAAG1, which they designated RU2AS. The deduced KAAG1 protein contains 84 amino acids. Northern blot analysis detected expression in normal kidney, bladder, liver, and testis, and RT-PCR analysis detected KAAG1 expression in normal proximal tubule epithelial cell lines. KAAG1 was expressed by a high proportion of tumors of various histologic origin, including some derived from tissues that did not express KAAG1, such as melanomas, sarcomas, and colorectal carcinomas.

KAAG1 and the overlapping RU2 gene are transcribed independently.KAAG1 lies in the antisense orientation and overlaps intron 1 and the promoter region of RU2.