Increased expression of the immunosuppressive interleukin-35 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Induced IL-35⁺Foxp3⁺ cell numbers in the TU region of the lung of patients with NSCLC associated with ARG1 mRNA expression and with TTF-1⁺PD-L1⁺ cells. In the tumour-free CTR area, IL-35 correlated with CD68⁺ macrophages. Thus inhibitors to IL-35 would probably succeed in combination with antibodies against immune checkpoints like PD-L1 and PD-1 currently used against NSCLC because they would inhibit immunosuppressive macrophages and T regulatory cells while promoting T cell-mediated anti-tumoural immune responses in the microenvironment as well as the TU region of NSCLC patients.