The Correlation between Deglycosylation of PD-L1 and Gene Mutations and Their Effects on the Prognosis of Patients with Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to define the clinical significance of deglycosylation of PD-L1 and its correlation with EGFR and ALK mutation in lung adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Lung adenocarcinoma tissue microarray sections were obtained from Outdo Biotech. We estimated the intensity of both native and deglycosylated PD-L1 signals by a 28-8 antibody. We analyzed the difference in the H-score between tumor and paratumor tissues, as well as that before and after deglycosylation. Correlations between EGFR or ALK status and PD-L1 expression were analyzed. We also evaluated the differences among survival curves.

Results: The expression level of PD-L1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in paratumor tissues (P<0.0001). Deglycosylation significantly enhanced the detection of PD-L1 in tumor tissues (P<0.0001). There was no statistical significance between the signal intensity of deglycosylated PD-L1 and the survival of patients (P=0.9099). However, the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 was significantly correlated with the survival of patients with stage N1-N3 (P=0.0435) and stage T3-T4 (P=0.0366) and male patients (P=0.0258). A statistical trend was found in the correlation between the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 and the survival of patients with grade II-III plus grade III (P=0.0973). Correlation between EGFR or ALK status and the expression of PD-L1 was not found (P>0.05).

Conclusion: PD-L1 deglycosylation enhances the detection of PD-L1 when utilizing a 28-8 antibody. Moreover, the response to deglycosylation of PD-L1 may predict the survival of certain patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Our research provides a more effective strategy for estimating PD-L1 expression and predicting patient outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma.

Note:
Funding Information: This work was supported by the Postdoctoral research funding program of Jiangsu Province; the Six talent peaks project in Jiangsu Province (grant number WSN186); and the Taihu Talent Program (grant number HB2020005).

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee, Wuxi People’s Hospital affiliated with Nanjing Medical University.

Keywords: Programmed death ligand 1, Deglycosylation, lung adenocarcinoma