OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between CD276 and clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC) and assess the diagnostic value of CD276 in ccRCC.
METHODS: Expression levels of CD276 in ccRCC and para-cancer tissues were compared and analyzed retrospectively using data obtained from TCGA and GEO databases. The clinical data was analyzed prospectively. Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR analyses were used to analyze the expression of CD276 at the mRNA and protein levels. These analyses compared the expression between ccRCC tissues and para-cancer tissues obtained from 70 patients with ccRCC. Next, ELISA was used to analyze peripheral blood samples from 70 patients with ccRCC and 72 healthy individuals, facilitating the differentiation of ccRCC patients from normal controls. Finally, we utilized the Kaplan-Meier method to generate ROC curves for assessing the diagnostic value of CD276 for ccRCC.
RESULTS: Analysis of TCGA and GEO data revealed that the mRNA expression of CD276 was higher in ccRCC tissues than in para-cancer tissues (P < .05). Clinical validation using IHC and RT-PCR confirmed that the expression of CD276 was higher in ccRCC tissues than in para-cancer tissues, both at the mRNA and protein levels (P < .05). ELISA demonstrated that the expression of CD276 was higher in ccRCC patients than in normal individuals, and patients with a higher pathological grade showed higher expression of CD276 in the peripheral blood than those with a lower pathological grade (P < .05). ROC curves drawn from the above three datasets demonstrated that CD276 had a high diagnostic value for ccRCC (AUC = .894, .795, .938, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: The expression of CD276 was higher in ccRCC tissues and positively associated with the pathological grade. Therefore, CD276 may serve as a molecular biomarker for ccRCC prediction.

Co-signaling molecules PD-L1, B7-H3, and PD-1 play a key role in cancer immunology. There are limited but emerging data on expression of these molecules in HIV-infected lung cancer patients.
We reviewed archived lung cancer tissue samples from HIV-infected cases (n = 13) and HIV-uninfected controls (n = 13) from 2001-2015. Cases and controls were matched by histology and stage. Immunostained tumor sections were analyzed for percent of tumor cells expressing PD-L1 and B7-H3, and percent of tumor infiltrating immune cells (TII) expressing PD-1 and PD-L1. Positive expression was defined as >5%. Statistical analysis was performed using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test and the chi-square test.
PD-L1 expression on tumor cells was positive in 23% of cases and 46% of controls. B7-H3 expression on tumor cells was positive in 92% of cases and 69% of controls. PD-1 expression on TII was positive in 69% of cases and 54% of controls. PD-L1 expression on TII was positive in 31% of cases and 69% of controls. B7-H3 percent expression on tumor cells was significantly higher in cases vs. controls (median 90% vs 20%, p = 0.005), but there were no significant differences in percent expression of PD-L1 on tumor cells, PD-1 on TII or PD-L1 on TII.
HIV-infected lung cancer patients had significantly higher B7-H3 tumor expression compared to HIV-uninfected controls, with similar rates of tumor PD-L1 expression, as well as PD-1 and PD-L1 expression on TII. These results support inclusion of HIV-infected lung cancer patients in future immunotherapy trials.