CD58 defines regulatory macrophages within the tumor microenvironment

CD58 has been implicated in immune suppression and is associated with stemness in various types of cancer. Nonetheless, efficient biomarkers for assessing cancer patient response to immunotherapy are lacking. The present work focused on assessing the immune predictive significance of CD58 for patients with glioma. The expression of CD58 correlates with the clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with glioma, suggesting CD58^high cells to signify glioma with tumorigenic potential. The CD58^high cells displayed accelerated tumor formation compared to CD58^low cells in vivo. Taken together, CD58 could potentially serve as a marker for glioma. CD58^high glioma induces macrophage polarization through CXCL5 secretion, where M2 macrophages regulate PD-L1 expression within CD58^high glioma via IL-6 production in vitro. Moreover, it was found that combination treatment with CD58 significantly increased the volume of tumors in the xenograft specimens. Evaluating CD58 expression represents a promising approach for identifying patients who can benefit from immunotherapy.