Department of Hematology, Hematology Research Center, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China.
Department of Pathology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230013, Anhui, China.
Eur J Med Res. 2023 Sep 27;28(1):383. doi: 10.1186/s40001-023-01352-8.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are the most common types of leukemia in adults with an overall poor prognosis. PD-1 alone or combined with other immune checkpoint blockade is a promising research direction for the treatment of acute leukemia (AL) patients. However, clinical Implications of aberrant PD-1 expression in peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes of AML and ALL patients in assessing the prognosis of diseases, remains inconclusive.
In the present study, we used flow cytometry to evaluate PD-1 expression on the surface of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in the peripheral circulation of AML and ALL patients and its clinical significance. A total of 53 AML patients, 44 ALL patients and 28 healthy controls were enrolled in this study and peripheral blood specimens were detected by flow cytometry.
Our results indicated that percentages of CD4+ PD1+ and CD8+ PD1+ T lymphocytes in newly diagnosed and non-remission groups were significantly higher than healthy control both in AML and ALL patients. The high level of CD4+ PD1+ and CD8+ PD1+ T lymphocytes were respectively poor prognostic indicators of AML patients and ALL patients but had no significant correlation with most common clinical risks.
Our findings show that aberrant PD-1 expression correlates with the prognosis of AL patient and may thus serve as poor prognostic indicators. Immunotherapy using PD-1 inhibitors may be a promising strategy for AML and ALL patients with peripheral circulating CD4+ PD1+ and CD8+ PD1+ T lymphocytes positively expressed, respectively.
急性淋巴细胞白血病（ALL）和急性髓细胞白血病（AML）是成人中最常见的白血病类型，总体预后较差。PD-1 单独或与其他免疫检查点阻断剂联合使用是治疗急性白血病（AL）患者的一个有前途的研究方向。然而，外周血 CD4+和 CD8+T 淋巴细胞中异常 PD-1 表达在评估疾病预后中的临床意义仍不确定。
本研究采用流式细胞术评估 AML 和 ALL 患者外周血循环中 CD4+和 CD8+T 淋巴细胞表面 PD-1 的表达及其临床意义。共纳入 53 例 AML 患者、44 例 ALL 患者和 28 名健康对照者，采用流式细胞术检测外周血标本。
我们的结果表明，在 AML 和 ALL 患者中，初诊和未缓解组的 CD4+PD1+和 CD8+PD1+T 淋巴细胞比例明显高于健康对照组。高水平的 CD4+PD1+和 CD8+PD1+T 淋巴细胞分别是 AML 患者和 ALL 患者的不良预后指标，但与大多数常见的临床风险无显著相关性。
我们的研究结果表明，异常 PD-1 表达与 AL 患者的预后相关，可作为不良预后指标。针对外周血循环中 CD4+PD1+和 CD8+PD1+T 淋巴细胞阳性表达的 AML 和 ALL 患者，使用 PD-1 抑制剂的免疫治疗可能是一种有前途的策略。
