In our study, we investigated the role of CD39 on tumor‐infiltrating CD8+ T lymphocytes (CD8+ TILs) in colorectal, head and neck and pancreatic cancers. Partially confirming recent observations correlating the… Click to show full abstract
In our study, we investigated the role of CD39 on tumor‐infiltrating CD8+ T lymphocytes (CD8+ TILs) in colorectal, head and neck and pancreatic cancers. Partially confirming recent observations correlating the CD39 expression with T‐cell exhaustion, we demonstrated a divergent functional activity in CD39+CD8+ TILs. On the one hand, CD39+CD8+ TILs (as compared to their CD39− counterparts) produced significantly lower IFN‐γ and IL‐2 amounts, expressed higher PD‐1, and inversely correlated with perforin and granzyme B expression. On the other, they displayed a significantly higher proliferative capacity ex vivo that was inversely correlated with the PD‐1 expression. Therefore, CD39+CD8+ TILs, including those co‐expressing the CD103 (a marker of T resident memory [TRM] cells), were defined as partially dysfunctional T cells that correlate with tumor patients with initial progression stages. Interestingly, our results identified for the first time a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP rs10748643 A>G), as a genetic factor associated with CD39 expression in CD8+ TILs. Finally, we demonstrated that compounds inhibiting CD39‐related ATPases improved CD39+CD8+ T‐cell effector function ex vivo, and that CD39+CD8+ TILs displayed effective suppression function in vitro. Overall these data suggest that the SNP analysis may represent a suitable predictor of CD39+CD8+ T‐cell expression in cancer patients, and propose the modulation of CD39 as a new strategy to restore partially exhausted CD8+ TILs.
               
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