In vivo gene expression profiling for chemosensitivity to docetaxel-cisplatin-5-FU (TPF) triplet regimen in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and the effect of TPF treatment on related gene expression in vitro

CPT1A mediates chemoresistance in human hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma via ATG16L1-dependent cellular autophagy

Hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) is a highly aggressive malignancy that constitutes approximately 95% of all hypopharyngeal carcinomas, and it carries a poor prognosis. The primary factor influencing the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs for this type of carcinoma is chemoresistance. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A) has been associated with tumor progression in various cancers, including breast, gastric, lung, and prostate cancer. The inhibition or depletion of CPT1A can lead to apoptosis, curbing cancer cell proliferation and chemoresistance. However, the role of CPT1A in HSCC is not yet fully understood. In this study, we discovered that CPT1A is highly expressed in HSCC and is associated with an advanced T-stage and a poor 5-year survival rate among patients. Furthermore, the overexpression of CPT1A contributes to HSCC chemoresistance. Mechanistically, CPT1A can interact with the autophagy-related protein ATG16L1 and stimulate the succinylation of ATG16L1, which in turn drives autophagosome formation and autophagy. We also found that treatment with 3-methyladenine (3-MA) can reduce cisplatin resistance in HSCC cells that overexpress CPT1A. Our findings also showed that a CPT1A inhibitor significantly enhances cisplatin sensitivity both in vitro and in vivo. This study is the first to suggest that CPT1A has a regulatory role in autophagy and is linked to poor prognosis in HSCC patients. It presents novel insights into the roles of CPT1A in tumorigenesis and proposes that CPT1A could be a potential therapeutic target for HSCC treatment.

Early effects of cigarette smoke extract on human oral keratinocytes and carcinogenesis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background

Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Still, the effect of cigarette smoke on the molecular level is unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the early effects of cigarette smoke on carcinogenesis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Methods

Human oral keratinocytes were exposed for 1 week to standardized cigarette smoke extract, and subsequently RT‐quantitative PCR array was performed. Protein expression of dysregulated genes was determined by immunohistochemistry in tissue samples of oral squamous cell carcinoma, oral leukoplakia, and tonsil mucosa.

Results

RT‐PCR revealed upregulation of ITGA‐2 and MMP‐1, whereas TEK receptor tyrosine kinase was downregulated in human oral keratinocytes. ITGA‐2 and MMP‐1 were significantly overexpressed in tissue samples of oral squamous cell carcinoma in comparison to normal mucosa (P <.01 in all experiments).

Conclusion

Upregulation of ITGA‐2 and MMP‐1 induced by cigarette smoke contributes significantly to oral carcinogenesis.

A response prediction model for taxane, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy in hypopharyngeal carcinoma

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. The five-year survival rate of HNSCC has not improved even with major technological advancements in surgery and chemotherapy. Currently, docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluoruracil (TPF) treatment has been the most popular chemotherapy method for HNSCC; but only a small percentage of HNSCC patients exhibit a good response to TPF treatment. Unfortunately, at present, no reasonably effective prediction model exists to assist clinicians with patient treatment. For this reason, patients have no other alternative but to risk neoadjuvant chemotherapy in order to determine their response to TPF. In this study, we analyzed the gene expression profile in TPF-sensitive and non-sensitive patient samples. We identified a gene expression signature between these two groups. We further chose 10 genes and trained a support vector machine (SVM) model. This model has 88.3% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity to predict the response to TPF treatment in our patients. In addition, four more TPF responsive and four more TPF non-sensitive patient samples were used for further validation. This SVM model has been proven to achieve approximately 75.0% sensitivity and 100% specificity to predict TPF response in new patients. This suggests that our 10-genes SVM prediction model has the potential to assist clinicians to personalize treatment for HNSCC patients.

Microarray gene expression analysis of chemosensitivity for docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) combined chemotherapeutic regimen in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Objective

To screen out a set of candidate genes which could help to determine whether patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) could benefit from docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) induction chemotherapy.

Methods

Gene-expression profiles in 12 TPF-sensitive patients were compared to 9 resistant controls by microarray analysis. Subsequently, expression levels of potential biomarkers in chemosensitive cell line FaDu after TPF treatment were observed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).

Results

Through microarray analysis, 1,579 differentially expressed genes were identified, of which 815 were up-regulated in TPF chemotherapy-responsive tissues whereas 764 were down-regulated. Gene ontology (GO) analysis suggested these genes participating in physiological processes including transcription and its regulation, cellular signal transduction and metabolic process. Additionally, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database revealed that MAPK and Jat/STAT signaling pathways occupied important roles in TPF chemotherapeutic sensitivity. Moreover, in vitro cell culture experiments revealed the expression alternations of IL-6, MAPK14, JUN, CDK5 and CAMK2A exposed to TPF treatment by qRT-PCR, whilst providing an insight into the mechanism underlying TPF chemotherapeutic response in HSCC.

Conclusions

These results provided a battery of genes related to TPF chemotherapeutic sensitivity and might act as molecular targets in HSCC treatment. Moreover, these candidate biomarkers could contribute to HSCC individualized treatment.