title: Immune repertoire: A potential biomarker and therapeutic for hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: The immune repertoire (IR) refers to the sum of B cells and T cells with functional diversity in the circulatory system of one individual at any given time. Immune cells, which reside within microenvironments and are responsible for protecting the human body, include T cells, B cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. These dedicated immune cells have a characteristic structure and function. T and B cells are the main lymphocytes and are responsible for cellular immunity and humoral immunity, respectively. The T cell receptor (TCR) and B cell receptor (BCR) are composed of multiple peptide chains with antigen specificity. The amino acid composition and sequence order are more diverse in the complementarity-determining regions (including CDR1, CDR2 and CDR3) of each peptide chain, allowing a vast library of TCRs and BCRs. IR research is becoming increasingly focused on the study of CDR3 diversity. Deep profiling of CDR3s using high-throughput sequencing is a powerful approach for elucidating the composition and distribution of the CDR3s in a given sample, with in-depth information at the sequence level. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world. To identify novel biomarkers for diagnosis and drug targets for therapeutic interventions, several groups attempted to describe immune repertoire characteristics of the liver in the physiological environment or/and pathological conditions. This paper reviews the recent progress in IR research on human diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma, attempting to depict the relationships between hepatocellular carcinogenesis and the IR, and discusses the possibility of IR as a potential biomarker and therapeutic for hepatocellular carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Binhai Genomics Institute, BGI-Tianjin, and Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Yingxin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Binhai Genomics Institute, BGI-Tianjin, and Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Binhai Genomics Institute, BGI-Tianjin, and Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Yanfang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Binhai Genomics Institute, BGI-Tianjin, and Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; Key Laboratory of Systems Biomedicine (Ministry of Education) and Collaborative Innovation Center of Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; Shanghai-MOST Key Laboratory for Disease and Health Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center, Shanghai 201203, China. Electronic address: huangj@chgc.sh.cn.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005838:Genotype; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D007159:Immunologic Tests; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D010641:Phenotype; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D011947:Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
keywords: Complementarity-determining regions; Hepatocellular carcinoma; High-throughput sequencing; Immune repertoire; Immune repertoire sequencing