Peripheral blood T lymphocytes are downregulated by the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in advanced gastric cancer
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Paweł Bury; Agata Surdacka; Marek Majewski; Jacek Roliński; Ewelina Grywalska; Artur Zakoscielny; Krzysztof Zinkiewicz; Witold Zgodziński; Grzegorz Wallner
- Source
- Archives of Medical Science : AMS
Archives of Medical Science, Vol 15, Iss 3, Pp 774-783 (2018)
- Subject
- programmed death ligand-1
T lymphocytes
lcsh:Medicine
Flow cytometry
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Immune system
Downregulation and upregulation
PD-L1
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
programmed death-1
biology
medicine.diagnostic_test
business.industry
gastric cancer
lcsh:R
Cancer
General Medicine
medicine.disease
Molecular biology
Immune checkpoint
Peripheral
Basic Research
biology.protein
business
CD8
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1896-9151
1734-1922
Introduction Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) function as an immune checkpoint pathway that can be exploited by tumor cells to evade immuno-surveillance. The precise role of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition of the immune response in GC is unknown. The study investigated PD-1 and PD-L1 expression on peripheral T-cells and its potential association with clinicopathological features in gastric cancer (GC) patients. Material and methods PD-1/PD-L1 expression on CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cells from peripheral blood of 40 patients primarily diagnosed with advanced GC was evaluated by multicolor flow cytometry. Results The frequency of CD4(+)PD-1(+) and CD8(+)PD-1(+) cells in GC patients was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.01, respectively). Expression of PD-1 on CD8(+) cells in GC was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). The frequency of CD4(+)PD-L1(+) and CD8(+)PD-L1(+) cells was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). Expression of PD-L1 on CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells in GC was higher than in the control group (p < 0.0001). A higher frequency of CD4(+)PD-1(+) cells was found in diffuse-type compared to intestinal tumors (p < 0.029). A higher frequency of CD8(+)PD-1(+) cells was found in patients with poorly differentiated compared to well/moderately differentiated tumors (p < 0.019). Conclusions Downregulation of peripheral blood CD4(+) and CD8(+) lymphocytes can be associated with PD-1/PD-L1 expression. This can lead to attenuation of the general immune response in GC.