Distinct lymphocyte immune signatures to nivolumab and recombinant IL-7 ex vivo in patients with sepsis.

Authors

Timothy Arthur Chandos Snow, Walter Pisciotta, Gladys Martir, Caroline Copeland, Athanasios Sekeris, Abhishek Das, Mervyn Singer, David Brealey, Nishkantha Arulkumaran

Published in

Journal of leukocyte biology. Volume 118. Issue 6. Jun 08, 2026.

Abstract

Therapeutic modulation of sepsis-induced immune dysfunction by targeting lymphocyte dysfunction with recombinant IL-7 (rIL-7) and anti-PD-1 (e.g. nivolumab) has shown promise in preclinical and early clinical studies. Prior to conducting large randomized controlled trials, an in-depth understanding of the changes induced by rIL-7 or nivolumab (and their differences) in patients with sepsis is imperative. We performed a prospective observational cohort study including patients admitted to the intensive care unit with sepsis and characterized their T lymphocyte phenotype using flow cytometry. The ability of T lymphocytes to respond to a stimulus (using anti-CD3/CD28 beads) and the effect of rIL-7 or nivolumab on T lymphocyte immunophenotype ex vivo was assessed. In a cohort of 55 patients, CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte PD-1 was higher and IL-7R lower compared with healthy volunteers. In a subset of 24 intensive care unit patients in whom in-depth immunophenotype was characterized, ex vivo response of lymphocytes to anti-CD3/CD28 beads was reduced compared with healthy volunteers, simultaneously inducing features consistent with immune activation and immunosuppression. rIL-7 was associated with a greater spectrum of changes compared with nivolumab. The response to rIL-7 and nivolumab was influenced by anti-CD3/CD28 bead costimulation. rIL-7 and nivolumab elicited distinct T lymphocyte responses ex vivo, and the changes were influenced by T lymphocyte activation. It needs to be determined if similar changes occur in vivo, which may influence the choice of immunomodulatory therapy in sepsis.

PMID:
42376746
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Jun 2026.

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