94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Hematology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1526772
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing T Cell Function: Innovations in Cancer ImmunotherapyView all 15 articles
CD73 + CD8 + T cells define a subset with anti-tumor potential in DLBCL patients
Provisionally accepted- Fuyang Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
CD8 + T cells play a critical role in the immune response against cancer, yet their functionality can be modulated by various factors within the tumor microenvironment.CD73 is a recently discovered immune checkpoint that catalyzes the conversion of AMP to adenosine, thereby suppressing anti-tumour immune responses. This study uniquely identifies and characterizes CD73 + CD8 + T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), elucidating their enhanced effector functions and distinct immunophenotypic profile. Using flow cytometry, we examined the expression of inhibitory receptors and activating markers on CD73 + CD8 + T cells and CD73 -CD8 + T cells, alongside in vitro assays to assess their functional capabilities against tumor cells. Our results demonstrate that CD73 + CD8 + T cells exhibit reduced expression of inhibitory receptors and increased cytotoxic activity, suggesting they may possess higher anti-tumor potential and lower exhausted characteristics. Furthermore, this subset of CD8 + T cells represent a potential therapeutic target for immunotherapy in DLBCL. Ultimately, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of CD8 + T cell heterogeneity in DLBCL and highlights the need for further exploration of CD73 + CD8 + T cells to understand DLBCL.
Keywords: CD8 + T cells, CD73, DLBCL, Cytotoxicity, Anti-tumor potential, Immunotherapy
Received: 13 Nov 2024; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Cheng, Fan, Liu, Huang and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiabing Peng, Fuyang Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.