Immune dysregulation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with liver cancer

55 Background: Immune regulation may play an important role in cancer development. The immune dysregulation and underlying mechanisms in patients with liver cancer have not fully understood. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from patients with liver cancer. Deep-sequencing, FACS analysis, ELISA and real-time PCR were used to analyze the immune dysregulation and underlying mechanisms in patients with liver cancer. Results: Our analysis discovered that the percentages of immune cell populations in PBMC from patients with liver cancer were significantly different from those in normal controls. Specifically, the percents of B cells and regulatory T cells were high in PBMC from patients with liver cancer. Expression of 161 genes such as EGF, IRF3, CD177, MAP2K2 and MMP9 was found to be significantly inhibited, but 66 genes including CD19, CD70, FOXP1 and IL-32 were significantly up-regulated in PBMC from patients with liver cancer. Further analysis showed that 190 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were significantly down-regulated; whereas150 lncRNAs were significantly up-regulated in PBMC from patients with liver cancer. Dysregulated lncRNAs were involved in the control of immune cell signaling, cell division and differentiation. Conclusions: The results suggest that the immune dysregulation may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of liver cancer. It also has a great implication in the development of immune therapeutic methods for patients with liver cancer.