International Journal of General Medicine (Jul 2023)
Overexpression of NRP1 is Associated with Poor Prognosis via Accelerating Immunosuppression in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Abstract
Xueming Yang,1– 4,* Teng Xu,1,2,4,* Xiaomeng Song,1,2,4 Yunong Wu1,2,4 1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Jiangsu Province Engineering Research Center of Stomatological Translational Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Stomatology, the Affiliated People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Stomatology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yunong Wu, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Stomatology, Nanjing Medical University, No. 1, Shanghai Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210029, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-25-69593100, Email [email protected]: Neuropilin-1 (NRP1) is a significant molecular structure that participates in many diseases progress including malignant tumors. However, its role in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains to be uncovered. In this study, we determined the function of NRP1 as a crucial biomarker in proliferation, metastasis and immunosuppression in HNSCC.Methods: We collected samples of normal tissues (n = 18) and HNSCC tissues (n = 202) for immunohistochemical staining of NRP1 and evaluated its correlation to clinical prognostic characteristics. Furthermore, we enrolled 37 HNSCC patients received immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) treatment with defined therapeutic effects records. The biological process, signal pathways, and immune infiltration relevance to NRP1 were analyzed utilized transcriptome data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).Results: The NRP1 protein expression was significantly upregulated in HNSCC tissue and was associated with T stage, N stage, histological differentiation, recurrence and NRP1 expression. The high expression of NRP1 indicated poor survival rate and was found to be an independent prognosis factor. Enrichment analysis showed that NRP1 was associated with cell adhesion, extracellular matrix organization, homophilic cell adhesion via plasma membrane in biological process and neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction, protein digestion and absorption, calcium signal pathways. Moreover, NRP1 mRNA level was found positively correlated to cancer associated fibroblast cells, Treg cells and macrophage/monocyte cells.Conclusion: NRP1 might be likely to develop into a potential immunoregulation target as well as a predictive biomarker in HNSCC immune treatment.Keywords: NRP1, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, immunosuppression, prognosis, bioinformatics
