Yuxi Cheng, Tianyi Liu, Manyu Li, Juan Chen, Xiaodan Fang and Zhangui Tang* Pages 1 - 14 ( 14 )
Background: The prognosis and survival rate of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remain a serious public health concern. Therefore, elucidation of the underlying mechanisms responsible for the biological behavior of HNSCC is crucial for the development of effective treatment strategies.
Methods and Materials: In this study, we analyzed the TCGA database and found that MAPK12 was overexpressed in tumor samples compared to normal samples, which was confirmed by microarray expression profiles, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry.
Results: Cell functional experiments, including the cell counting kit-8 assay, wound healing test, and Transwell assay, revealed that MAPK12 overexpression increased the proliferation, invasion, and migration of HNSCC cells. A correlation was observed between MAPK12 expression and patient survival in HNSCC across several clinicopathological variables, including disease grade and stage. Analysis of immune-related functions demonstrated that HNSCC patients with low MAPK12 expression had a more favorable tumor immune microenvironment and better immunological functions.
Conclusion: Collectively, our study identified for the first time that MAPK12 is upregulated in HNSCC, functioning as an oncogene, indicating a suppressive tumor immune microenvironment and poor prognosis since it could promote cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. However, further studies are needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role of MAPK12 in HNSCC and other tumor types.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,MAPK12,MAPK superfamily,Oral squamous cell carcinoma,Tumor immune microenvironment,Biological behavior,Immune infiltration,Tumor microenvironment