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Theofilou VI, Ghita I, Elnaggar M, Chaisuparat R, Papadimitriou JC, Bentzen SM, Dyalram D, Lubek JE, Ord RA, Younis RH. Histological pattern of tumor inflammation and stromal density correlate with patient demographics and immuno-oncologic transcriptional profile in oral squamous cell carcinoma. FRONTIERS IN ORAL HEALTH 2024; 5:1408072. [PMID: 38903181 PMCID: PMC11187265 DOI: 10.3389/froh.2024.1408072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most prevalent oral malignancy, with emerging interest in the characterization of its tumor microenvironment. Herein, we present a comprehensive histological analysis of OSCC stromal density and inflammation and their relationship with patient demographics, clinicopathologic features and immuno-oncologic signatures. Materials-methods Eighty-seven completely excised OSCC tissues were prospectively collected and scored for histopathologic inflammatory subtypes [HIS]-inflamed (INF), immune-excluded (IE) and immune-desert (ID), peritumoral stromal inflammation (PTSI), and peritumoral stromal fibrosis (PTSF). Scoring of inflammation was complemented by Semaphorin 4D immunohistochemistry. NanoString differential gene expression (DGE) analysis was conducted for eight OSCC cases representative of the inflammatory and stromal subtypes and the demographic groups. Results PTSF correlated with male gender (p = 0.0043), smoking (p = 0.0455), alcohol consumption (p = 0.0044), increased tumor size (p = 0.0054), and advanced stage (p = 0.002). On the contrary, PTSI occurred predominantly in females (p = 0.0105), non-drinkers (p = 0.0329), and small tumors (p = 0.0044). Transcriptionally, decreased cytokine signaling, and oncogenic pathway activation were observed in HIS-IE. Smokers and males displayed decreased global immune-cell levels and myeloid-cell predominance. Conclusion Our work describes OSCC stromal and inflammatory phenotypes in correlation with distinct patient groups and DGE, highlighting the translational potential of characterizing the tumor microenvironment for optimal patient stratification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vasileios Ionas Theofilou
- Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Ioana Ghita
- Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Manar Elnaggar
- Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Risa Chaisuparat
- Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - John C. Papadimitriou
- Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Soren M. Bentzen
- Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Biostatistics Core, Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Biostatistics Division, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center,Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Donita Dyalram
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Head and Neck Surgery Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Joshua E. Lubek
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Head and Neck Surgery Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Robert A. Ord
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Head and Neck Surgery Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Rania H. Younis
- Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Department of Oral Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
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Hsieh MJ, Lo YS, Ho HY, Lin CC, Chuang YC, Chen MK. The Interaction between CLSPN Gene Polymorphisms and Alcohol Consumption Contributes to Oral Cancer Progression. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:1098. [PMID: 38256171 PMCID: PMC10816373 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25021098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Most disease single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are regulatory and approximately half of heritability is occupied by the top 1% of genes, with the gene-level structure varying with the number of variants associated with the most common alleles. Cancer occurrence and progression are significantly affected by Claspin (CLSPN) gene polymorphism present in the population, which alters the expression, function, and regulation of the gene. CLSPN genotypes are associated with oral cancer, but the literature on this association is limited. As a result, the goal of this study is to investigate the correlation between CLSPN genotypes and oral cancers' development. This study will explore the presence of four CLSPN SNPs including rs12058760, rs16822339, rs535638 and rs7520495 gene polymorphisms, and analyze the expression of these genes in 304 cancer-free controls and 402 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cases. Attempts have been made to obtain insight into the role of CLSPN gene polymorphisms in oral cancer through the analysis of this study. We demonstrated that the OSCC risk of individuals with four CLSPN SNPs relative to the wild type did not differ significantly from that of the wild type when the polymorphisms are analyzed according to individual habits. We further studied the mechanism by which CLSPN polymorphisms affect the progression of clinicopathological features in OSCC patients. The results of the degree of cell differentiation showed that compared with patients of rs7520495 SNP carrying the CC genotype, the incidence of poor cell differentiation in patients carrying the CC + GG genotype was higher (AOR: 1.998-fold; 95% CI, 1.127-3.545; p = 0.018). In particular, patients with the G genotype of rs7520495 had increased poor cell differentiation compared with patients with the C genotype (AOR: 4.736-fold; 95% CI, 1.306-17.178; p = 0.018), especially in the drinking group. On the basis of our analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset, we found that higher CLSPN levels were associated with poorer cell differentiation in oral cancers. In this study, we provide the first evidence showing that CLSPN SNPs contribute to oral cancer. Whether or not rs7520495 can be used as a confirmatory factor in the future is uncertain, but it seems likely that it can be used as an important factor in predicting recurrence, response to treatment and medication toxicity to patients with oral cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming-Ju Hsieh
- Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
- Doctoral Program in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Sheng Lo
- Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
| | - Hsin-Yu Ho
- Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
| | - Chia-Chieh Lin
- Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ching Chuang
- Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
| | - Mu-Kuan Chen
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan
- Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
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Differential Regulation of Innate Lymphoid Cells in Human and Murine Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24021627. [PMID: 36675138 PMCID: PMC9865302 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24021627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Revised: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) remain a major healthcare burden in Asian countries. In Pakistan alone, it is the most common cancer in males and second only to breast cancer in females. Alarmingly, treatment options for OSCC remain limited. With this context, investigations made to explore the inflammatory milieu of OSCC become highly relevant, with the hope of practicing immunotherapeutic approaches to address this highly prevalent tumor. We investigated the newly identified innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) and associated cytokines in well-defined human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) as well as in a 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced murine model of OSCC using flow cytometry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). We further went on to explore molecular circuitry involved in OSCC by developing a murine model of OSCC and using an α-Thy1 antibody to inhibit ILCs. Amongst the ILCs that we found in human OSCC, ILC3 (23%) was the most abundant, followed by ILC2 (17%) and ILC1 (1%). Mice were divided into four groups: DMBA (n = 33), DMBA+antibody (Ab) (n = 30), acetone (n = 5), and control (n = 5). In murine OSCC tissues, ILC1 and ILC3 were down-infiltrated, while ILC2 remained unchanged compared to controls. Interestingly, compared to the controls (DMBA group), mice treated with the α-Thy1 antibody showed fewer numbers of large tumors, and a larger percentage of these mice were tumor-free at this study's end point. We present novel data on the differential expansion/downsizing of ILCs in OSCC, which provides a pivotal basis to dive deeper into molecular circuitry and the OSCC tumor niche to devise novel diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic strategies to prevent/treat oral cancers.
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