Introduction: Several previous studies have shown that differential expression of cullin (CUL) family proteins may be involved in mediation of the signal transduction pathways associated with cancer. However, the function of CULs is still unclear in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).
Material and methods: We used The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, cBioPortal, Metascape, STRING, Cytoscape, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), Kaplan-Meier plotter, and Tumor Immune System Interaction Database (TISIDB) to access the expression of CULs and the possible correlation with the tumourigenesis, development, prognosis, immunity, and transcriptional level of CULs in HNSCC. Furthermore, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect messenger ribonucleid acid (mRNA) levels in HNSCC tissues and cell samples. We also explored the cell proliferation and migration separately by CCK8 assay and wound healing assay.
Results: The results showed that the expressions of CUL2/4A were upregulated and CUL9 was downregulated in HNSCC patients as compared with normal patients. CUL2/4A/9 were also linked to the clinicopathological features and overall survival of HNSCC in bioinformatics analysis. Moreover, we noticed that CUL2/4A/9 may take part in tumour-specific immune response by modulating the tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and immunomodulators. Lastly, we found that CUL2/4A/9 could promote cellular proliferation and migration.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the transcriptional levels of CUL2/4A/9 were upregulated and these genes could affect proliferation and migration of HNSCC cells. Therefore, CUL2/4A/9 could potentially function as novel independent biomarkers in HNSCC patients.
Keywords: cullin; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; migration; prognosis; proliferation.