High CD8+tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes indicate severe exhaustion and poor prognosis in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma

Background Exhaustion of CD8 + tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), characterized by the overexpression immune checkpoints (IC), is a major impediment to anti-tumor immunity. However, exhaustion status TILs in angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed elucidate AITL and its influence on prognosis. Methods The correlation between IC expression was analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing (n = 2), flow cytometry 20), 20). Biological changes related at different cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) levels (mean CD8A, CD8B, GZMA, GZMB, PRF1) were evaluated 20) further validated GEO dataset 51). impact protein CTL patient prognosis sequencing, respectively. Results Our findings demonstrated that higher infiltration TILs, proportion exhausted multiple IC. This accompanied extensive exhaustion-related biological changes, which suggested severe may be one main reasons for poor patients with high CTL. Conclusion study comprehensively reveals their potential negative prognosis, facilitates mechanistic studies valuable guiding immunotherapy strategies.