A local human Vδ1 T cell population is associated with survival in nonsmall-cell lung cancer

Journal article

Murine tissues harbor signature γδ T cell compartments with profound yet differential impacts on carcinogenesis. Conversely, human tissue-resident γδ cells are less well defined. In the present study, we show that human lung tissues harbor a resident Vδ1 γδ T cell population. Moreover, we demonstrate that Vδ1 T cells with resident memory and effector memory phenotypes were enriched in lung tumors compared with nontumor lung tissues. Intratumoral Vδ1 T cells possessed stem-like features and were skewed toward cytolysis and helper T cell type 1 function, akin to intratumoral natural killer and CD8⁺ T cells considered beneficial to the patient. Indeed, ongoing remission post-surgery was significantly associated with the numbers of CD45RA^-CD27^- effector memory Vδ1 T cells in tumors and, most strikingly, with the numbers of CD103⁺ tissue-resident Vδ1 T cells in nonmalignant lung tissues. Our findings offer basic insights into human body surface immunology that collectively support integrating Vδ1 T cell biology into immunotherapeutic strategies for nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Authors: Wu, Y; Biswas, D; Usaite, I; Angelova, M; Boeing, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Cancer
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 696-709
• Publication date: 2022-05-30
• DOI: 10.1038/s43018-022-00376-z
• EISSN: 2662-1347
• ISSN: 2662-1347
• Language: English
• Keywords: Environmental health; Medicine; Cancer; Internal medicine; Cancer research; Biology; Lung; Cell; Population; Lung cancer; Oncology; Genetics; Human lung