Abstract:
Gastro intestinal ca ncers a re accountable for the highest mo rtality rates on a global scale, including gastric adeno ca rcino ma s a nd hepatocellula r ca rcino ma on a large scale. Tumo r microenv ironment has a vital role in influencing tumo r behavio r. Evading immune destructio n prevents the immunological killing of ca ncer cells by T and B ly mphocytes, macrophages and natural killer cells in the ea rly stages of cancer prog ression. To determine the relative expression level of immunological ma rkers and cytok ines (CTLA-4, PD-1, PDL-1, LAG-3, IL-7R, a nd IL-12A) in tumo r micro enviro nment of pa tients with gastro intestinal maligna ncies and their co rrelation with clinico pathological chara cteristics. Blood sa mples of gastro intestinal maligna nt pa tients were collected, followed by RNA extra ction and cDNA synthesis fo r gene ex pression. The quantifica tio n of immune checkpo ints a nd cytok ines was ca rried o ut on the DNA using RT-qPCR . There is a sig nif icant increase in CTLA-4 expressio n in all the GIT cancers as co mpa red to healthy controls. A slight increa se in LAG-3 expression was observed in eso pha ryngeal ca rcino ma patients as co mpa red to other GIT cancers . Downregulation of IL-7R a nd IL-12A was observ ed in all GIT ca ncers, however; gastric ca ncer shows a notable decrease in expression as co mpa red to other GIT ca ncers and controls. Genetic expressio n of ta rgeted immune check points and cytok ines is associate d w ith cancer prog ressio n and helpful in unveil ing the different mechanisms th rough which tumo r microenvironment evades the immune system. Th is will lead to the development of effective immune check point inh ibito rs as high-treatment effica cy drugs which activate the immune system, contributing to improved prog nosis and therapeutic methods in agg ressive tumo r.
Keywords:
gastrointestinal cancers
,
Gene expression
,
Malignancies
,
Cytokines
,
Tumor microenvironment
,
Immunological markers