The disease stage-associated imbalance of Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg in uterine cervical cancer patients and their recovery with the reduction of tumor burden

Abstract

Background: Nearly all uterine cervical cancer (UCC) cases result from human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. After high-risk HPV infection, most HPV infections are naturally cleared by humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Thus, cervical lesions of only few patients progress into cervical cancer via cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and lead to persistent oncogenic HPV infection. This suggests that immunoregulation plays an instrumental role in the carcinogenesis. However, there was a few studies on the relation between the immunologic dissonance and clinical characteristics of UCC patients. Method: We examined the related immune cells (Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cells) by flow cytometric analysis and analyzed their relations with UCC stages, tumor size, differentiation, histology type, lymph node metastases, and vasoinvasion. Next, we quantified the Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg cells before and after the operation both in UCC and CIN patients. Results: When compared with stage I patients, decreased levels of circulating Th1 cells and elevated levels of Th2, Th17, and Treg cells were detected in stage II patients. In addition, the imbalance of Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg cells was related to the tumor size, lymph node metastases, and vasoinvasion. We found that immunological cell levels normalized after the operations. In general, immunological cell levels in CIN patients normalized sooner than in UCC patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that peripheral immunological cell levels reflect the patient's condition.

Immune Equilibrium Depends on the Interaction Between Recognition and Presentation Landscapes

“…An imbalance between the subpopulations Th1/Th2 explains the pathogenesis of allergic and some oncologic diseases. However, in this case, an incorrect functional specialization of certain Agspecific clones in the ontogenesis resulting from the changes in the conditions of presentation of the respective antigens is observed rather than a transdifferentiation (66)(67)(68).…”

An epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related long non-coding RNA signature to predict overall survival and immune microenvironment in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma

“…The advent of checkpoint inhibitors has revolutionized the systemic treatment of many malignancies, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and in clinical trials, a variety of PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 inhibitors have been shown to respond to patients and improve patient survival [ 23 ]. The imbalance of Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg cells was linked to the tumor size, lymph node metastases, and vasoinvasion [ 24 ]. In general, weakened anti-tumor immunity in high-risk patients may be one of the reasons for their poor prognosis.…”

Effect of Dezocine on the Ratio of Th1/Th2 Cytokines in Patients Receiving Postoperative Analgesia Following Laparoscopic Radical Gastrectomy: A Prospective Randomised Study

“…Th1 and Th2 cells are differentiated from precursor Th0 cells, and the cross-regulation between Th1 and Th2 cell is important. 24 , 25 Th1 cells can secrete IFN-γ and IL-2, mediate the cellular immune response, activate T lymphocytes and macrophages and reduce postoperative infection, which are the main mechanisms of antitumour immunity. Th2 cells can secrete IL-4 and IL-6, mediate humoral immunity, stimulate B lymphocyte proliferation, produce immunoglobulin and participate in humoral immunity.…”