Correlation between the immune checkpoints and EMT genes proposes potential prognostic and therapeutic targets in ESCC

In this study, we aimed to investigate the probable association between expression of immune checkpoints and EMT in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) with clinical treats for providing the new therapeutic targets and prognostic value for the disease. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to investigate the gene expression profile of immune checkpoints (PD-1,PD-L1,CTLA-4,TIM-3, andLAG-3) and EMT (TWIST1 andMMP-13) genes based on the mRNA expression levels in 51 ESCC tissues. The upregulation ofCTLA-4, PD-1, PD-L1, TIM-3,LAG-3,MMP-13, andTWIST1 were observed in 31.37%, 29.41%, 21.56%, 39.21%, 25.49%, 60.78%, and 56.86% of ESCC cases at the mRNA level, respectively. Dysregulation of immune checkpoints was related to lymph node involvement, stage of tumor progression, and depth of tumor invasion (P <  0.05). While overexpression ofMMP-13 andTWIST1 was associated with lymph node involvement, stage of tumor progression, and grade of tumor differentiation (P <  0.05). The mRNA expression of immune checkpoint genes was significantly correlated to each other's (P = 0.000). Of importance, the data explored the significant association between the concomitant expression of immune checkpoints and EMT-related genes with each other in a variety of clinicopathological traits (P <  0.05). Consequently, immune checkpoints were positively correlated with EMT status in ESCC. The correlation between tumor immune microenvironment with the elevation of multiple immune...
Source: Journal of Molecular Histology - Category: Laboratory Medicine Source Type: research