Article Abstract

Higher PD-1 expression concurrent with exhausted CD8+ T cells in patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia

Authors: Jiaxiong Tan, Shaohua Chen, Yuhong Lu, Danlin Yao, Ling Xu, Yikai Zhang, Lijian Yang, Jie Chen, Jing Lai, Zhi Yu, Kanger Zhu, Yangqiu Li

Abstract

Abstract
Objective: To investigate the association between the T cell inhibitory receptor programmed death 1 (PD-1)
and T cell exhaustion status in T cells from patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and AML in
complete remission (CR).
Methods: Surface expression of PD-1 and the exhaustion and immunosenescence markers CD244 and CD57 on
CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from peripheral blood samples from 20 newly diagnosed, untreated AML patients
and 10 cases with AML in CR was analyzed by flow cytometry. Twenty-three healthy individuals served as control.
Results: A significantly higher percentage of PD-1+ cells were found for CD3+ T cells in the de novo AML
group compared with healthy controls. In addition, an increased level of PD-1+CD8+ T cells, but not PD-1+CD4+,
was found for CD3+ T cells in the de novo AML and AML-CR samples. A higher percentage of CD244+CD4+,
CD244+CD8+, CD57+CD4+ and CD57+CD8+ T cells was found in CD3+ T cells in samples from those with de
novo AML compared with those from healthy controls. Strong increased PD-1+CD244+ and PD-1+CD57+ co-
expression was found for CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the de novo AML group compared with healthy controls.
Conclusions: We characterized the major T cell defects, including co-expression of PD-1 and CD244, CD57-
exhausted T cells in patients with de novo AML, and found a particular influence on CD8+ T cells, suggesting a
poor anti-leukemia immune response in these patients.
Keywords: Acute myeloid leukemia; PD-1; T cell exhaustion

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