Ectopic Expression of TIGIT in Lung Adenocarcinoma and Its Clinical Significance

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the T cell immunoreceptor with ITIM and Ig domains (TIGIT) expression in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). TIGIT expression was measured by western blot, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Seventy-two paired surgical specimens were collected from patients with stage I-IV LUAD. The expression of TIGIT in surgical specimens was determined using immunohistochemistry. TIGIT was overexpressed in LUAD tissues. Moreover, overexpressed TIGIT was significantly associated with advanced clinical staging, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TP53 mutations in LUAD. Moreover, high expression of TIGIT was negatively correlated with purity of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells. High rations of TIGIT<sup>+</sup>CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells predicted poor overall survival of LUAD patients. Additionally, high ratios of TIGIT<sup>+</sup>CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells is closely related to CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell depletion. Taken together, TIGIT was overexpressed in LUAD patients. High levels of TIGIT induced the alteration of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cell based immunomodulation and predicted poor prognosis of LUAD patients. Therefore, TIGIT can be potential biomarker for LUAD.