TCR CDR3-CMV Antigen Chemical Complementaries Are Associated With a Worse Outcome for Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Background/aim: Due to still unresolved questions regarding viruses as either a primary cause or a comorbidity in cancer, we examined a potential immune response to cytomegalovirus (CMV) in the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) setting using genomics and bioinformatics approaches.

Materials and methods: Specifically, we assessed chemical complementarity scores (CSs) for solid tissue normal resident, T-cell receptor (TCR) complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3s) and CMV antigens and determined whether higher or lower CS groups were associated with a higher or lower survival probability.

Results: This was indeed the case, with all such analyses consistently indicating a lower overall and progression-free survival for the cases representing the higher TCR CDR3-CMV antigen chemical CSs. This basic result was obtained for two separate RCC datasets and multiple CMV antigens.

Conclusion: The results raise the question, to what extent a systemic CMV infection may represent an important co-morbidity for RCC.

Keywords: CDR3; Cytomegalovirus; T-cell receptors; overall survival; renal cell carcinoma.