Circulating CD137+ CD8+ T cells accumulate along with increased functional regulatory T cells and thoracic tumour burden in lung cancer patients.
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| Abstract |
CD137 is a promising target for immunostimulation strategies against cancer. Previous studies showed that CD137+ CD8+ T cells are enriched in antitumour effector T cells in both preclinical tumour models and cancer patients, but to date, such T cells in the blood of lung cancer patients have not been sufficiently investigated. In this study, circulating antigen-activated CD8+ T cell subsets, identified as CD137+ CD8+ or PD-1+ (programmed cell death protein 1) CD8+ , and regulatory T cells (Treg), identified as CD4+ CD25+ CD127low/- , in 40 untreated lung cancer patients and in 49 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were assessed by flow cytometry. Results were evaluated for associations with lung cancer patient clinical characteristics. Correlations between antigen-activated CD8+ T cells and effector Treg (CTLA-4+ [cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4] CD4+ CD25+ CD127low/- ) were also investigated. Higher percentages of PD-1+ , CD137+ and PD-1+ CD137+ amongst CD8+ T cells were observed in lung cancer patients compared with HCs. The percentages of CD137+ CD8+ and PD-1+ CD137+ CD8+ T cell subsets amongst CD8+ T cells were positively correlated with thoracic tumour burden and were strongly positively correlated with the percentage of effector Treg subset. Smoking patients harboured higher percentages of the PD-1+ CD8+ T cell subset compared with non-smoking patients. This study demonstrated that circulating antigen-activated CD8+ T cells accumulated in lung cancer patients along with increased effector Treg and thoracic tumour burden. These findings aid a better understanding of immune-host interactions in lung cancer patients using peripheral blood, and further support immunotherapeutic intervention strategies using combination therapy for differential control of Treg and activation of tumour-specific effector T cells.
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| Authors | Jingying Nong, Jinghui Wang, Xin Gao, Qi Zhang, Bin Yang, Zhuohong Yan, Xiaojue Wang, Ling Yi, Qunhui Wang, Yuan Gao, Aimin Hu, Na Qin, Panjian Wei, Hongtao Zhang, Shucai Zhang |
| Journal | Scandinavian journal of immunology (Scand J Immunol) Vol. 89 Issue 6 Pg. e12765 (Jun 2019) ISSN: 1365-3083 [Electronic] England |
| PMID | 30921475 (Publication Type: Journal Article) |
| Copyright | © 2019 The Foundation for the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology. |
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