Immunological phenotypes and differentiation statuses commonly decide the T cell function and anti-tumor ability. However, little is known about these alterations in CML patients.
Here, we investigated the immunologic phenotypes (CD38/CD69/HLA-DR/CD28/CD57/BTLA/TIGIT/PD-1) of T subsets (TN, TCM, TEM, and TEMRA) in peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) from de novo CML patients (DN-CML), patients who achieved a molecular response (MR) and those who failed to achieve an MR (TKI-F) after tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment using multicolor flow cytometry.
CD38 or HLA-DR positive PB CD8+TN and TCM cells decreased in the DN-CML patients and this was further decreased in TKI-F patients. Meanwhile, the level of PD-1 elevated in CD8+ TEM and TEMRA cells from PB in all groups. Among BM sample, the level of HLA-DR+CD8+TCM cells significantly decreased in all groups and CD8+TEMRA cells from TKI-F patients exhibited increased level of TIGIT and CD8+ tissue-residual T cells (TRM) from DN-CML patients expressed a higher level of PD-1 and TIGIT. Lastly, we found a significantly decreased proportion of CD86+ dendritic cells (DCs) and an imbalanced CD80/CD86 in the PB and BM of DN-CML patients, which may impair the activation of T cells.
In summary, early differentiated TN and TCM cells from CML patients may remain in an inadequate activation state, particularly for TKI-F patients. And effector T cells (TEM, TEMRA and TRM) may be dysfunctional due to the expression of PD-1 and TIGIT in CML patients. Meanwhile, DCs cells exhibited the impairment of costimulatory molecule expression in DN-CML patients. Those factors may jointly contribute to the immune escape in CML patients.