Objective: To investigate the expression of ligand 1 of programmed death-1 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the relationship between their expression and the clinicopathological features.
Method: Immunohistochemistry was performed to assess the expression of PD-L1 in 59 cases of NPC tissues and 10 cases of normal nasopharyngeal tissue. RT-PCR was used to investigate the mRNA expression of PD-L1 gene in 30 NPC samples and 10 cases of normal nasopharyngeal tissues.
Result: In case of tissues of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the positive expression rate of PD-L1 protein and PD-L1mRNA were 67.8% (40/59) and 66.6% (20/30) respectively, while there were no PD-L1 detectable in normal nasopharyngeal tissues. The expression of PD-L1 was significantly correlated with clinical TNM stage and lymphatic metastasis (P <0.05). However, no significant correlation was founded between the expression of PD-L1 and age and sex (P >0.05).
Conclusion: PD-L1 is overexpressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, PD-L1 maybe play a certain role in carcinogenesis and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and turn into a new target of immunotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.