scholarly journals The Functionalities and Clinical Significance of Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jishuai Zhang ◽  
Haifeng Wang ◽  
Haitao Wu ◽  
Guangliang Qiang
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Natural Killer ◽  
Clinical Significance ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis

Tumor-infiltrating immune cells have been implicated in the tumorigenesis and progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, the functionalities and clinical significance of immune cells remain largely unveiled. In this study, the gene expression data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were extracted. The relative infiltrating levels were estimated by single-sample gene set enrichment analysis. Some cytotoxic immune cells were attenuated, and resting cytotoxic immune cells were accumulated in ESCC. Remarkably, we also observed that infiltrating levels of macrophage M2 and resting natural killer (NK) cells were increased in nonresponders of CRT, and T cells that had anticancer activities such as activated memory CD4 and T helper 2 (Th2) cells were significantly reduced in ESCC tissues of the nonresponders. Moreover, the high infiltrations of the resting natural killer (NK) and dendritic cell (DC) were observed to result in a shorter overall survival in ESCC. Consistently, high expression of immune checkpoint genes, CTLA4 and HAVCR2, was associated with poor prognosis. Furthermore, STAT5B, a key transcription factor, as well as its target genes, involved in the regulation of T cells, was significantly downregulated in ESCC, especially subgroup I, indicating that downregulation of STAT5B might be associated with reduced T cell-mediated anticancer activity. In conclusion, the present study significantly improved our understanding of the regulatory roles of immune cells in ESCC.

scholarly journals PD-1H Expression Associated With CD68 Macrophage Marker Confers an Immune-Activated Microenvironment and Favorable Overall Survival in Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuangui Chen ◽  
Rui Feng ◽  
Bailin He ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Na Xian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Overall Survival ◽  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Expression Levels ◽  
Tumor Tissues ◽  
Gene Expression Levels

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the most common type of esophageal carcinoma (EC) in China. Although the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab has been approved to treat patients with EC, its therapeutic efficacy is limited. Thus, additional immunotherapeutic targets for EC treatment are needed. Programmed Death-1 Homolog (PD-1H) is a negative checkpoint regulator that inhibits antitumor immune responses. Here, PD-1H expression in 114 patients with ESCC was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Next, 12 randomly selected tumor tissue sections were used to assess the colocalization of PD-1H protein and multiple immune markers by multiplex immunohistochemistry. Our results demonstrated that PD-1H was expressed at high frequency in ESCC tumor tissues (85.1%). PD-1H protein was predominantly expressed in CD68+ tumor-associated macrophages and expressed at low levels in CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells in ESCC tumor tissues. Furthermore, based on ESCC data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the gene expression levels of PD-1H were positively associated with the infiltration levels of immune-activated cells especially CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. In contrast, the gene expression levels of PD-1H were negatively correlated with myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Importantly, PD-1H expression in tumor sites was significantly correlated with favorable overall survival in patients with ESCC. Collectively, our findings first provided direct information on the PD-1H expression pattern and distribution in ESCC, and positive correlation of PD-1H expression with overall survival suggested PD-1H expression levels could be a significant prognostic indicator for patients with ESCC. Future studies need to explore the immunoregulatory of PD-1H in the tumor microenvironment of ESCC.

scholarly journals Clinical significance of ZNF750 gene expression, a novel tumor suppressor gene, in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1795-1801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sho Nambara ◽  
Takaaki Masuda ◽  
Taro Tobo ◽  
Shinya Kidogami ◽  
Hisateru Komatsu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Tumor Suppressor ◽  
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Tumor Suppressor Gene ◽  
Clinical Significance ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Suppressor Gene

scholarly journals Interleukin 32 Promotes Foxp3+ Treg Cell Development and CD8+ T Cell Function in Human Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Microenvironment

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Han ◽  
Shiyu Chen ◽  
Zheyi Chen ◽  
Bingqian Zhou ◽  
Yingxia Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Cell Function ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Treg Cells ◽  
Sequencing Data

Proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 32 (IL-32) is involved in infectious diseases and cancer, but what subtypes of immune cells express IL-32 and its roles in tumor microenvironment (TME) have not been well discussed. In this study, we applied bioinformatics to analyze single-cell RNA sequencing data about tumor-infiltrating immune cells from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) TME and analyzed IL-32 expression in different immune cell types. We found CD4+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) express the highest level of IL-32, while proliferating T and natural killer cells expressed relatively lower levels. Knocking down of IL-32 reduced Foxp3 and interferon gamma (IFNγ) expressions in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, respectively. IL-32 was positively correlated with Foxp3, IFNG, and GZMB expression but was negatively correlated with proliferation score. IL-32 may have a contradictory role in the TME such as it promotes IFNγ expression in CD8+ T cells, which enhances the antitumor activity, but at the same time induces Foxp3 expression in CD4+ T cells, which suppresses the tumor immune response. Our results demonstrate different roles of IL-32 in Treg cells and CD8+ T cells and suggest that it can potentially be a target for ESCC cancer immunosuppressive therapy.

scholarly journals The clinical significance of collagen family gene expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieling Li ◽  
Xiao Wang ◽  
Kai Zheng ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Junjun Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Prediction Model ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Clinical Significance ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Gene Prediction ◽  
Mesenchymal Transition ◽  
Collagen Genes

Background Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a subtype of esophageal cancer with high incidence and mortality. Due to the poor 5-year survival rates of patients with ESCC, exploring novel diagnostic markers for early ESCC is emergent. Collagen, the abundant constituent of extracellular matrix, plays a critical role in tumor growth and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. However, the clinical significance of collagen genes in ESCC has been rarely studied. In this work, we systematically analyzed the gene expression of whole collagen family in ESCC, aiming to search for ideal biomarkers. Methods Clinical data and gene expression profiles of ESCC patients were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the gene expression omnibus databases. Bioinformatics methods, including differential expression analysis, survival analysis, gene sets enrichment analysis (GSEA) and co-expression network analysis, were performed to investigate the correlation between the expression patterns of 44 collagen family genes and the development of ESCC. Results A total of 22 genes of collagen family were identified as differentially expressed genes in both the two datasets. Among them, COL1A1, COL10A1 and COL11A1 were particularly up-regulated in ESCC tissues compared to normal controls, while COL4A4, COL6A5 and COL14A1 were notably down-regulated. Besides, patients with low COL6A5 expression or high COL18A1 expression showed poor survival. In addition, a 7-gene prediction model was established based on collagen gene expression to predict patient survival, which had better predictive accuracy than the tumor-node-metastasis staging based model. Finally, GSEA results suggested that collagen genes might be tightly associated with PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, p53 pathway, apoptosis, cell cycle, etc. Conclusion Several collagen genes could be potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for ESCC. Moreover, a novel 7-gene prediction model is probably useful for predicting survival outcomes of ESCC patients. These findings may facilitate early detection of ESCC and help improves prognosis of the patients.

scholarly journals CCR7 Has Potential to Be a Prognosis Marker for Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma and an Index for Tumor Microenvironment Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Jie Tian ◽  
Peng-Hui Feng ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Ting Yan ◽  
Qing-Feng Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Tumor Microenvironment ◽  
Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Squamous Cell ◽  
Immune Cells ◽  
Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma ◽  
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis ◽  
Cox Regression Analysis ◽  
Positive Correlation

The tumor microenvironment (TME) has an essential role in the development of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC); however, the dynamic role of the stromal and immune cells is still unclear in TME. We downloaded data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and applied ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT algorithms to measure the quantity of stromal and immune cells and the composition of tumor-infiltrating immune cell (TIC) in 253 CSCC cases. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and Cox regression analysis presented the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Then, C-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CCR7) was screened out as a prognostic marker by the univariate Cox and intersection analysis of PPI. Further analysis showed a positive correlation between the expression of CCR7 and the survival of CSCC patients. The result of the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of genes in the high CCR7 expression group displayed a predominant enrichment in immune-related pathways. An enrichment in metabolic activities was observed in the low CCR7 expression group. CIBERSORT analysis showed a positive correlation between Plasma cells, CD8+ T cells, and regulatory T cells and the CCR7 expression, suggesting that CCR7 might play a crucial role in maintaining the immunological dominance status for TME. Therefore, the expression level of CCR7 might help predict the survival of CSCC cases and be an index that the status of TME transitioned from immunological dominance to metabolic activation, which presented a new insight into the treatment of CSCC.

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