OncoTargets and Therapy (May 2016)
Clinical significance of B7-H6 protein expression in astrocytoma
Abstract
Jian-gui Guo,1,* Cheng-cheng Guo,2,* Zhen-qiang He,2 Zhi-gang Liu,3 Yang Wang,2 Yong-gao Mou21Department of Radiation Oncology, 2Department of Neurosurgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Radiation Oncology, Key Laboratory of Translational Radiation Oncology, Hunan Cancer Hospital, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China*These authors have contributed equally to this workAbstract: Currently, immunotherapy by blocking the immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-PD-1, has been carried out in many clinical studies on recurrent glioma, and the preliminary results are satisfactory, which provides a rationale for the exploration of immune checkpoint inhibitors in glioma. B7-H6 is a newly discovered member of the B7 family, which triggers antitumor of natural killer cell cytotoxicity and cytokine secretion by binding the NKp30 receptor. B7-H6 mRNA and protein expressions, which are not detected in normal tissues, are expressed mainly on the cell surface of various primary tumors and cell lines. However, up until now, there is no data about the clinical significance of B7-H6 expression in astrocytoma patients. The present study provides an investigation on the relationship between prognostic and clinical value of B7-H6 protein in astrocytoma tissues. All the astrocytic glioma tissues were stained for B7-H6. Immunohistochemistry stain of 122 astrocytoma samples showed that immunoreactivity of B7-H6 was seen predominantly in the cytoplasm. The B7-H6 expression did not show significant relevance with patient age, sex distribution, Karnofsky performance status score, extent of resection, and tumor location in astrocytoma patients, but B7-H6 positive expression is significantly associated with World Health Organization grade (P=0.046). However, the survival rate after operation presented no significant difference of B7-H6 expression in astrocytoma patients. Kaplan–Meier analysis and the log-rank test revealed that B7-H6 expression cannot predict the overall survival. In all, it seems that the B7-H6 expression might be a marker to differentiate the World Health Organization grade level of astrocytoma, but the prognosis value of B7-H6 in astrocytoma should be studied in detail.Keywords: B7-H6, astrocytoma, glioma, immunotherapy
