SYT7 acts as an oncogene and a potential therapeutic target and was regulated by ΔNp63α in HNSCC

You Fu; Guocai Tian; Zhiyuan Zhang; Xiao Yang

doi:10.1186/s12935-021-02394-w

SYT7 acts as an oncogene and a potential therapeutic target and was regulated by ΔNp63α in HNSCC

Cancer Cell Int. 2021 Dec 20;21(1):696. doi: 10.1186/s12935-021-02394-w.

Authors

You Fu^#^{1

2}, Guocai Tian^#^{1

2}, Zhiyuan Zhang^{3

4}, Xiao Yang^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, College of Stomatology, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 639 Zhizaoju Road, Shanghai, 200011, People's Republic of China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Research Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Regenerative Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, College of Stomatology, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 639 Zhizaoju Road, Shanghai, 200011, People's Republic of China. Zhiyuan.Zhang@sh9hospital.org.cn.
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Research Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Regenerative Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. Zhiyuan.Zhang@sh9hospital.org.cn.
⁵ Department of Oral and Cranio-maxillofacial Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, College of Stomatology, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 639 Zhizaoju Road, Shanghai, 200011, People's Republic of China. 113023@sh9hospital.org.cn.
⁶ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Research Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Regenerative Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. 113023@sh9hospital.org.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are one of the most common types of head and neck cancer, and it is urgent to find effective treatment for advanced patients. Exploring developing and progressing mechanisms of HNSCC could provide a theoretical basis to find new therapeutic targets.

Methods: In our research, we performed a whole-gene expression profile microarray analysis to identify differential expression genes between squamous cell carcinoma cells and ΔNp63 alpha (ΔNp63α) knockdown cells. As a result, an important gene Synaptotagmin VII (SYT7) was screened out.

Results: SYT7 knockdown affected the proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle of squamous cell carcinoma cells. The rescue experiment in vitro with ΔNp63α and SYT7 double knockdown resulted in partial reversion of ΔNp63α-induced phenotypes. This was also confirmed by experiments in vivo.

Conclusions: Taken together, we found that ΔNp63α could inhibit the occurrence and progression of HNSCC throughout downregulating the expression of SYT7. Therefore, SYT7/ΔNp63α axis could be a potential therapeutic target for clinical treatment of HNSCC.

Keywords: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; SYT7; TCGA, microarray; ΔNp63 alpha.

Abstract

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