Transcriptionally Reprogrammed Circulating CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T Cells in Post-Transplant Cancer

Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have a high cancer incidence partly due to reduced anti-cancer immunity from long-term immunosuppression. The mechanisms underlying immune and T-cell defects in cancer control remain unclear.PBMCs were obtained from two KTR cohorts (n=26): cancer-affected (CA+) and cancer-free (CA−). CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cells were FACS sorted and RNA sequenced on Illumina NextSeq 2000 from a primary set (10 CA+, 9 CA−) and a validation set (4 CA+, 3 CA−) confirming findings. Differential gene expression of 16,102 CD4⁺ and 16,033 CD8⁺ genes was analyzed using DESeq2