Biopolym. Cell. 2022; 38(3):169-185.
http://dx.doi.org/10.7124/bc.000A7C
Molecular Biomedicine
Expresion paterns of various PDCD1 and PDL1 isoforms in prostate tumors
1Gerashchenko G. V., 2Kononenko O. A., 3Bondarenko Yu. M., 2Stakhovsky E. O., 1Tkachuk Z. Yu., 1Tukalo M. A., 1Kashuba V. I.
  1. Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, NAS of Ukraine
    150, Akademika Zabolotnoho Str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 03143
  2. National Cancer Institute
    33/43, Lomonosova Str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 03022
  3. State Institution «Institute of Urology of NAMS of Ukraine»
    9-a, Yu. Kotsubyns'koho Str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 04053

Abstract

Aim. To assess the relative expression (RE) levels of various isoforms of the PDCD1 and PDL1 immune checkpoint genes in prostate tumors, to find the clinically significant alterations in tumors and the correlations with the prostate cancer related and other immune associated genes. Methods. Using quantitative PCR, RE levels of different isoforms of PDCD1 and PDL1 were analyzed in 35 samples of prostate cancer tissues of a different Gleason score (GS) and at various grades, the paired conventionally normal prostate tissue (CNT) samples and 20 prostate adenomas. Results. We have assessed RE levels for 5 variants of long and short isoforms of PDCD1 and PDL1 in prostate cancer and noncancerous tissue samples. We detected a significant decrease of RE levels of PDL1 long isoforms in prostate cancer with GS>7, compared with the adenoma group. Noteworthy, RE of short isoforms of PDCD1 and PDL1 has positive correlations with the age. The RE patterns of PDCD1 and PDL1 isoforms demonstrated significant correlations with the expression of 31 genes, related to tumor-associated macrophages, fibroblasts and immune cell markers in the prostate cancer group. Conclusions. The studied genes are involved in the prostate cancer progression, related to inflammation. The RE levels showed high dispersion in all groups of prostate tissue samples. We propose to assess the RE levels of the PDCD1 and PDL1 genes long isoforms, before prescribing immunotherapy methods, to analyse the putative sensitivity of tumors to such treatment. Further studies are needed to confirm the presented here results on a larger patient cohort.
Keywords: prostate tumors, relative gene expression, PDCD1, PDL1, long and short isoforms, pharmacological markers.
Full text: (PDF, in English)

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