Expression And Clinical Significance Of Long Non-coding RNA XIST And GAS5 In Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

BackgroundHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC)is a tumor with high malignancy in the head and neck,and squamous cell carcinoma is the most common histologic type,accounting for 90%of all head and neck tumors[1-3],mainly occurring in the neck segment esophageal,oral cavity,nasopharynx,hypopharynx and larynx[4-5].Risk factors for this cancer include smoking,alcohol consumption,HPV,EBV infection and consumption of preserved foods[6].More recently,despite advances in both surgery and adjuvant therapy,the 5-year overall survival rate for HNSCC remains around 50%[7].At present,there are no specific way to monitor prognosis,clinicopathological features,local recurrence,or metastasis in patients with HNSCC.In this context,there are a lot of interests in identifying novel biomarkers,such as long non-coding RNAs,micRNAs and circRNAs,that can predict clinical outcomes in patients who benefit from a particular treatment[8].Recently,more and more studies have shown that LncRNA has been found to play an important role in early tumor diagnosis and correlation with overall survival rate in some tumors,thus confirming whether it can be used as a potential therapeutic marker[9-10].As far as LncRNAs are concerned,they are transcripts with core parameters no less than 200.Relevant experimental results show that it plays an important role in the evolution,metastatis and invasion of a variety of tumors,with protein coding capacity,LncRNAs can still play a role in carcinogenesis or tumor suppression[11].With the development of quantitative real-time fluorescent PCR(qRT-PCR),the detection of RNA has reached an unprecedented level,and a large number of abnormal LncRNAs have been found to be involved in the occurrence,progression and prognosis of various tumors.Based on the above findings,do LncRNAs have specific expression in HNSCC and may be used as tumor markers for the diagnosis,treatment,follow-up and prognosis of HNSCC?PurposeTo investigate the expression levels of long non-coding RNA(LncRNA)XIST and GAS5 in the patient with HNSCC and their relationship with various clinicopathological features,so as to explore their clinical significance and diagnostic value in HNSCC.MethodFifty patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who underwent surgical resection in the pharyngopharyngeal head and neck surgery department of our hospital from October 2019 to November 2020 and who met the inclusion criteria were strictly selected as the research objects.The resected tumor tissues were taken as the observation group,and the paracancerous tissues of the same patient.In addition to,through qRT-PCR detection,the expression levels of XIST and GAS5 were determined.And the relationship between it and various clinicopathological features was analyzed.ROC curve was drawn to explore the diagnostic value of LncRNA XIST and GAS5 in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Results1.After qRT-PCR detection,the results showed that the expression level of XIST in cancer tissues was higher than that in adjacent tissues,and the XIST/GAPDH was 1.5±0.13 and 1.59±0.16,respectively,P<0.05,the difference was statistically significant.In addtition,The expression degree of GAS5 in cancer tissues was lower than that in adjacent tissues,and GAS5/GAPDH was 1.26±0.07 and 1.23±0.11,respectively,P<0.05,the difference was statistically significant.2.XIST expression in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma associated with two factors,including TNM stage and tumor differentiation levels(χ2=0.011,χ2=0.002,P<0.05),while there is no correlation with other factors(P>0.05).The expression level of GAS5 was correlated with smoking history,tumor location and TNM stage(χ2=0.023,χ2=0.015,χ2=0.048,P<0.05),but not with other factors(P>0.05).3.The area under the ROC curve(AUC)of XIST was 0.638(95%CI(0.529,0.746),P<0.05),and the optimal truncation value of XIST/GAPDH was 1.433897,the sensitivity was 32%,and the specificity was 94%.The area under the ROC curve(AUC)of GAS5 was 0.65(95%CI(0.540,0.760),P<0.05),and the optimal truncation value of GAS5/GAPDH was 1.2275,with sensitivity of 70%and specificity of 62%.ConclusionIn head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,LncRNA XIST expression was up-regulated and LncRNA GAS5 expression was down-regulated.Moreover,LncRNA XIST was closely related to TNM stage and tumor differentiation degree of patients,and LncRNA GAS5 was closely related to the smoking history,TNM stage and tumor location of patients.Moreover,both XIST and GAS5 have certain diagnostic value for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,and are expected to become new targets for the treatment of HNSCC.However,further experiments and studies are needed to investigate the specific mechanisms and action sites of LncRNA XIST and GAS5 in the occurrence and development of HNSCC,as well as the impact on the prognosis of patients.