Affiliations 

  • 1 National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence in Research and Learning (NOCERAL), Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 2 Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia, Sunway 47500, Malaysia
  • 3 Division of Applied Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology, School of Health Sciences, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
Curr Oncol, 2022 Aug 05;29(8):5585-5603.
PMID: 36005179 DOI: 10.3390/curroncol29080441

Abstract

The main role of the host immune system is to identify and eliminate cancer cells, which is a complex process, but it is not a fail-safe mechanism. Many sarcoma patients succumb to this disease despite treatments rendered. The aim of this pilot study was to compare the levels of CD4+ T-cells, T-regulatory (Treg) cells, and cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin-17A (IL-17A), and transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF-β1) in peripheral blood leukocytes of sarcoma patients and healthy controls. For gene expression studies, total ribonucleic acid (RNA) was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes and genes that were differentially regulated in peripheral blood leukocytes of sarcoma patients compared with healthy controls were determined using a commercial T-helper cell differentiation quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) array. Flow cytometer analysis was performed on blood samples from 26 sarcoma patients and 10 healthy controls to identify the levels of CD4+ T-cells and T-reg cells. The level of cytokines in plasma and culture supernatant were quantified using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. A marked reduction in the percentage of CD4+ T-cells (p = 0.037) and levels of TNF-α (p = 0.004) and IFN-γ (0.010) was observed in sarcoma patients. Gene expression analysis showed five genes (homeobox A10 (HOXA10), GATA binding protein 3 (GATA3), prostaglandin D2 receptor 2 (PTGDR2), thymocyte selection associated high mobility group box (TOX), and C-C motif chemokine receptor 3 (CCR3)) were dysregulated (p < 0.05) in sarcoma patients. This study suggests that T-helper-1 immune responses are reduced in sarcoma patients.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.