Exploring correlations between gut mycobiome and lymphocytes in melanoma patients undergoing anti-PD-1 therapy

Research has shown that the microbiome can influence how the immune system responds to melanoma cells, affecting the course of the disease and the outcome of the therapy. Here, we used the metagenomic approach and flow cytometry analyses of blood cells to discover correlations between gut fungi of metastatic melanoma patients enrolled in anti-PD-1 therapy and lymphocytes in their blood.
We analyzed the patterns of associations before the first administration of anti-PD-1 therapy (BT, n = 61) and in the third month of the therapy (T3, n = 37), allowing us to track changes during treatment. To understand the possible impact of gut fungi on the efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy, we analyzed the associations in clinical beneficiaries (CB, n = 37) and non-beneficiaries (NB, n = 24), as well as responders (R, n = 28) and non-responders (NR, n = 33).
Patients with LDH < 338 units/L, overall survival (OS) > 12, CB, as well as R, had lower levels of Shannon diversity (p = 0.02, p = 0.05, p = 0.05, and p = 0.03, respectively). We found that the correlation pattern between intestinal fungi and lymphocytes was specific to the type of response, positive or negative. When comparing CB and NB groups, correlations with opposite directions were detected for C. albicans, suggesting a response-specific immune reaction. For CB, M. restricta exhibited a set of correlations with different types of lymphocytes, with prevalent positive correlations, suggesting a robust immune response in the CB group. This result extends our former research, where M. restricta and C. albicans were associated with an increased risk of melanoma progression and a poorer response to anti-PD-1 treatment.