CCL18 promotes the metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck through MTDH‐NF‐κB signalling pathway

Abstract

Metastasis is one of the primary causes for high mortality in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Our previous study showed that chemokine (C‐C motif) ligand 18 (CCL18), derived from tumour‐associated macrophages (TAMs), regulates SCCHN metastasis by promoting epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) and preserving stemness. However, the underlying mechanism needs to be further investigation. Interestingly, metadherin (MTDH) expression was induced when SCCHN cells were stimulated with recombinant CCL18 protein in this study. Suppressing MTDH expression reversed CCL18‐induced migration, invasion and EMT in SCCHN cells. Furthermore, the NF‐κB signalling pathway was involved in the MTDH knock‐down cells with CCL18 stimulation. We performed ELISA to evaluate the CCL18 levels in the serums of 132 treatment‐naive SCCHN patients, 25 patients with precancerous lesion and 32 healthy donors. Our results demonstrated that serum CCL18 levels were significantly higher in SCCHN patients than patients with precancerous lesion and healthy individuals. CCL18 levels were found to be significantly correlated with tumour classification, clinical stage, lymph node metastasis and histological grade in SCCHN patients. Thus, our findings suggest that CCL18 may serve as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of SCCHN and promote SCCHN invasion, migration and EMT by MTDH‐NF‐κB signalling pathway.

S100A11 functions as novel oncogene in glioblastoma via S100A11/ANXA2/NF‐κB positive feedback loop

“…NF‐κB is closely associated with the progression of numerous cancers . ANXA2 is closely associated with NF‐kB pathway .…”

“…NF-κB signalling is associated with numerous of cellular responses, such as cell survival, differentiation and proliferation. 25 NF-κB signalling has been reported to play an vital role in malignant cell mobility. 34,35 Recent studies showed ANXA2 could mediate upregulation of NF-κB.…”

“…NF-κB is closely associated with the progression of numerous cancers. 24,25 ANXA2 is closely associated with NF-kB pathway. 11,13,26,27 Here, we detected whether the NF-κB signalling was involved in S100A11/ANXA2 signalling in GBM.…”

LINC00511 contributes to glioblastoma tumorigenesis and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition via LINC00511/miR‐524‐5p/YB1/ZEB1 positive feedback loop

“…[26][27][28]38,39 However, there is still little evidence defining the role of LINC00511 in EMT. [26][27][28]38,39 However, there is still little evidence defining the role of LINC00511 in EMT.…”

“…Studies have reported that the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) RP11 promotes colorectal cancer cells dissemination by ZEB1 overexpression, whereas lncRNA HCCL5 could be activated by ZEB1 to promote hepatocellular carcinoma malignancy. 18,19 Among these, lncRNAs are a class of ncRNAs of more than 200 bp that have been demonstrated to be closely related to cancer progression, including tumorigenesis, 20 stemness, 21 apoptosis, 22 25 It has also been reported that LINC00511 promotes proliferation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 26 ovarian cancer 27 and glioma. 16,17 Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are transcribed genes that are not further translated into proteins and include lncRNAs, circular RNAs (circRNAs) and miRNAs, which perform vital roles in human cancers.…”