Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 253: Survival-Associated Metabolic Genes in Human Papillomavirus-Positive Head and Neck Cancers

Cancers, Vol. 12, Pages 253: Survival-Associated Metabolic Genes in Human Papillomavirus-Positive Head and Neck Cancers Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers12010253 Authors: Martin A. Prusinkiewicz Steven F. Gameiro Farhad Ghasemi Mackenzie J. Dodge Peter Y. F. Zeng Hanna Maekebay John W. Barrett Anthony C. Nichols Joe S. Mymryk Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes an increasing number of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). Altered metabolism contributes to patient prognosis, but the impact of HPV status on HNSCC metabolism remains relatively uncharacterized. We hypothesize that metabolism-related gene expression differences unique to HPV-positive HNSCC influences patient survival. The Cancer Genome Atlas RNA-seq data from primary HNSCC patient samples were categorized as 73 HPV-positive, 442 HPV-negative, and 43 normal-adjacent control tissues. We analyzed 229 metabolic genes and identified numerous differentially expressed genes between HPV-positive and negative HNSCC patients. HPV-positive carcinomas exhibited lower expression levels of genes involved in glycolysis and higher levels of genes involved in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and β-oxidation than the HPV-negative carcinomas. Importantly, reduced expression of the metabolism-related genes SDHC, COX7A1, COX16, COX17, ELOVL6, GOT2, and SLC16A2 were correlated with improved patient survival only in the HPV-positive group. This work suggests that specific ...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research