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The aim of this study was to: (a) explore the potential mechanism of cancer cell sensitivity to cisplatin, docetaxel, and 5‐fluorouracil (TPF) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients overexpressing growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15); and (b) identify potential alternative agents for patients who might not benefit from inductive TPF chemotherapy. The results indicated that OSCC cells overexpressing GDF15 were sensitive to TPF through a caspase‐9‐dependent pathway both in vitro and in vivo. Immunoprecipitation combined with mass spectrometry revealed that the erbB2 protein was a potential GDF15‐binding protein, which was verified by coimmunoprecipitation. Growth differentiation factor 15 overexpression promoted OSCC cell proliferation through erbB2 phosphorylation, as well as downstream AKT and Erk signaling pathways. When GDF15 expression was blocked, the phosphorylation of both the erbB2 and AKT/Erk pathways was downregulated. When OSCC cells with GDF15 overexpression were treated with the erbB2 phosphorylation inhibitor, CI‐1033, cell proliferation and xenograft growth colony formation were significantly blocked (P <.05). Thus, GDF15‐overexpressing OSCC tumors are sensitive to TPF chemoagents through caspase‐9‐dependent pathways. Growth differentiation factor 15 overexpression promotes OSCC proliferation through erbB2 phosphorylation. Thus, ErbB2 inhibitors could represent potential targeted drugs or an alternative therapy for OSCC patients with GDF15 overexpression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The benefit of induction chemotherapy in locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains to be clearly defined. Induction chemotherapy is likely to be effective for biologically distinct subgroups of patients and biomarker development might lead to identification of the patients whose tumors are to respond to a particular treatment. Annexin A1 may serve as a biomarker for responsiveness to induction chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate Annexin A1 expression in pre-treatment biopsies from a cohort of OSCC patients treated with surgery and post-operative radiotherapy or docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (TPF) induction chemotherapy followed by surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. Furthermore we sought to assess the utility of Annexin A1 as a prognostic or predictive biomarker.Methods: Immunohistochemical staining for Annexin A1 was performed in pre-treatment biopsies from 232 of 256 clinical stage III/IVA OSCC patients. Annexin A1 index was estimated as the proportion of tumor cells (low and high, <50% and ≥50% of stained cells, respectively) to Annexin A1 cellular membrane and cytoplasm staining.Results: There was a significant correlation between Annexin A1 expression and pathologic differentiation grade (P=0.015) in OSCC patients. The proportion of patients with low Annexin A1 expression was significantly higher amongst those with moderate/poorly differentiated tumor (78/167) compared to those with well differentiated tumor (18/65). Multivariate Cox model analysis showed clinical stage (P=0.001) and Annexin A1 expression (P=0.038) as independent prognostic risk factors. Furthermore, a low Annexin A1 expression level was predictive of longer disease-free survival (P=0.036, HR=0.620) and locoregional recurrence-free survival (P=0.031, HR=0.607) compared to high Annexin A1 expression. Patients with moderate/poorly differentiated tumor and low Annexin A1 expression benefited from TPF induction chemotherapy as measured by distant metastasis-free survival (P=0.048, HR=0.373) as well as overall survival (P=0.078, HR=0.410).Conclusions: Annexin A1 can be used as a prognostic biomarker for OSCC. Patients with moderate/poorly differentiated OSCC and low Annexin A1 expression can benefit from the addition of TPF induction chemotherapy to surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. Annexin A1 expression can potentially be used as a predictive biomarker to select OSCC patients with moderate/poorly differentiated tumor who may benefit from TPF induction chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: To figure out the expression of EGFR in locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma and the relationship between EGFR expression and TPF induction chemotherapy. METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-six patients with locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma in a prospective randomized controlled trial were included in this study. Using immunohistochemical staining against EGFR, expression of EGFR was detected in the oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues before treatment. The relationship between EGFR expression and clinicopathologie indicators was analyzed as well as the relationship between EGFR expression and TPF induction chemotherapy. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS18.0 software package. RESULTS: There was a significant correlation between the EGFR positive expression and the age of patients (P=0.015), younger patients had higher EGFR expression level. No significant correlation between EGFR expression and other clinicopathologie indicators was found. According to the pathological and clinical response to TPF induction chemotherapy, there was no significant correlation between EGFR expression level and the response to TPF induction chemotherapy. The correlation between EGFR expression and the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients was not significant as regards to tumor recurrence, overall survival, disease free survival, locoregional reccurrence free survival and distant metastasis free survival. CONCLUSIONS: EGFR expression was related to the age of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Further studies are suggested on the clinical application of EGFR expression as target therapy in oral squamous cell carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apatinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets VEGFR2 signaling and shows potent antitumor effects in various cancers. In this study, we explored the efficacy of apatinib against oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The relationships between VEGFR2 protein expression and clinical variables were investigated in OSCC patients. OSCC tissues had higher VEGFR2 levels than paracancerous tissues. Compared to patients with low VEGFR2 expression, patients with high VEGFR2 expression had poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Apatinib significantly induced G0/G1 phase arrest and apoptosis, inhibited cell growth and colony formation ability, and blocked autophagic flux by downregulating p-AKT and p-mTOR signaling via the VEGFR2/AKT/mTOR pathway in vitro. Moreover, the inhibition of ERK phosphorylation increased apatinib-induced apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. Apatinib synergized with SCH772984 to achieve a more significant suppression of tumor growth than individual treatment, suggesting the combination of apatinib and SCH772984 as a potent OSCC therapy., Competing Interests: None., (AJCR Copyright © 2021.)

Former clinical trials and experimental research have indicated that Interferon-gamma therapy does not achieve an ideal effect in solid tumors. Autophagy has been associated with tumor chemoresistance. The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of Interferon-gamma and autophagy inhibitor in the combination treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Interferon-gamma-induced apoptosis was evaluated by the expression of relative proteins (cleaved-PARP and caspase-3) and flow cytometry. Interferon-gamma induced autophagy was assessed by the expression of Beclin1, LC3B, and P62. The synergistic effect of interferon-gamma and autophagy inhibitor (chloroquine) was evaluated in vitro and in vivo . Interferon-gamma induced anti-proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. Autophagy-related protein 5 was a key feature in Interferon-gamma-induced autophagy flux. Interferon-gamma and chloroquine had obvious synergistic effects on cellular growth inhibition and apoptosis promotion in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells and xenograft models. Our findings suggest that Interferon-gamma-induced autophagy plays a cellular protective role, and blocking autophagy flux can promote Interferon-gamma mediated oral squamous cell carcinoma cell apoptosis. The combination of Interferon-gamma and autophagy inhibitors represents a novel strategy for oral squamous cell carcinoma therapy., Competing Interests: None., (AJCR Copyright © 2021.)

Purpose: To investigate the mechanism of ANXA1 in TPF chemotherapy of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)., Methods: ANXA1 overexpression and low-expression cell lines were constructed. The role of ANXA1 in TPF chemotherapy was analyzed by cell proliferation, cytotoxicity test, real-time PCR and Western blot, and the mechanism of ANXA1 in TPF chemotherapy through EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) pathway was discussed. The data were analyzed with SPSS 18.0 software package., Results: After overexpression of ANXA1, cell growth rate decreased, cell cycle slowed down, sensitivity to TPF-induced drugs decreased, and EMT occurred in OSCC. After underexpression of ANXA1, cell growth rate increased, cell cycle accelerated, sensitivity to TPF chemotherapeutic drugs increased, and reverse EMT occurred in OSCC., Conclusions: In TPF chemotherapy of OSCC, overexpression of ANXA1 results in EMT of cells, which leads to decreased chemosensitivity.

Purpose: To investigate the mutation status of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), as well as the prognostic value of missense GDF15 mutations., Patients and Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy samples from 46 OSCC patients were involved in this study. GDF15 and TP53 mutations were sequenced using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, GDF15 protein expression was detected using immunohistochemistry. Torrent Suite Software v.3.6, Integrative Genomics Viewer; v.2.3, statistical software SPSS18.0 for Windows were used for analysis. All hypothesis-generating tests were two-sided at a significance level of 0.05., Results: Twenty-nine GDF15 mutations were identified in 19 out of 46 patients (41.3%), including eighteen missense mutations, two nonsense mutations and nine synonymous mutations. The patients with missense GDF15 mutations had poorer prognostic outcomes than those with wild-type GDF15, including overall survival (P = 0.035), disease-free survival (P = 0.032), locoregional recurrence-free survival (P = 0.015), and distant metastasis-free survival (P = 0.070). Missense GDF15mutations was an independent increased risk factor of overall survival (HR = 5.993, 95% CI:1.856-19.346, P = 0.003), disease-free survival (HR = 3.764, 95% CI:1.295-10.945, P = 0.015), locoregional recurrence-free survival (HR = 4.555, 95% CI:1.494-13.889, P = 0.008), and distant metastasis-free survival (HR = 4.420, 95% CI:1.145-13.433, P = 0.009)., Conclusions: Patients with missense GDF15 mutations have significantly poorer outcomes than those with wild-type GDF15, missense GDF15 mutations could be used as an independent increased risk factor of poor prognosis in OSCC patients.

Objective: To evaluate the potential role of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in the orofacial inflammatory pain., Methods: SD rats received subcutaneous injection of 2.5% formalin 50 µl in the left vibrissa pad to establish the inflammatory pain model. The rats were grouped into the control group, the formalin group (FOR group), the formalin + saline group (FOR + NS group) and the formalin + SB203580 group (FOR + SB group). SB203580 or saline was inserted into the rat's cisterna magna 20 minutes prior to the formalin injection, then the behavioral changes were tested. The immunofluorescence staining and Western blotting analysis were performed to examine c-fos, p38MAPK and phosphorylated p38 (p-p38) activity in Vc at 20, 60, 120, 180 minutes after formalin injection., Results: p38MAPK was constitutively expressed in Vc (P > 0.05) and p38MAPK was activated following formalin injection.Compared with the control group at 20 min (0.12 ± 0.01), the level of p-p38 in FOR group (0.66 ± 0.04) and FOR + NS group (0.64 ± 0.04) increased significantly (P < 0.001). The expression of p-p38 peaked at 20 minutes, and then declined in each group. Intracisterna magna pretreatment of p38MAPK inhibitor SB203580 resulted in potent attenuation of phase II of pain behavior (P < 0.05), while the expression of c-fos was also inhibited, especially at the point of 120 min (P < 0.01)., Conclusions: Activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase played a major role in the development of orofacial inflammatory pain and it was verified by the experimental result that p38MAPK inhibitor SB203580 inhibited the formalin-induced orofacial pain.