Programmed Death Ligand 1 Indicates Pre-Existing Adaptive Immune Response by Tumor-Infiltrating CD8+ T Cells in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Aberrant expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) on tumor cells impedes antitumor immunity and instigates immune evasion. The remarkable efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade has been confirmed in various solid tumors. However, the correlation between PD-L1 expression and host immunological landscape remains of considerable controversy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the present study, PD-L1 expression and CD8(+) tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) infiltration levels were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in tumor sections of 138 NSCLC patients. The expression level of PD-L1 was positively correlated with the abundance of CD8(+) TILs (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, no constitutive expression of PD-L1 was observed in the majority of six NSCLC cell lines detected by Western blot; but exposure to interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), a primary cytokine secreted by activated CD8(+) T cells, prominently increased PD-L1 expression. Notably, a significantly positive association was determined within PD-L1, CD8 and IFN-gamma gene expression by qRT-PCR, which was corroborated by RNA-sequencing from TCGA lung cancer dataset. These findings demonstrate that PD-L1 expression indicates an adaptive immune resistance mechanism adopted by tumor cells in the aversion of immunogenic destruction by CD8(+) TILs. Both higher expression of PD-L1 and infiltration of CD8(+) TILs were correlated with superior prognosis (p = 0.044 for PD-L1; p = 0.002 for CD8). Moreover, Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that the combination of PD-L1 and CD8 were independent prognostic factors, which was more accurate in prediction of prognosis in NSCLC than individually. Finally, we found that IFN-gamma induced the upregulation of PD-L1 in NSCLC cells, mainly through the JAK/STAT1 signaling pathway. In conclusion, PD-L1 expression is mainly induced by activated CD8(+) TILs via IFN-gamma in the immune milieu and indicates pre-existing adaptive immune response in NSCLC.