It has been reported that ACE2 is the main host cell receptor of 2019-nCoV and plays a crucial role in the entry of virus into the cell to cause the final infection. To investigate the potential ...route of 2019-nCov infection on the mucosa of oral cavity, bulk RNA-seq profiles from two public databases including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Functional Annotation of The Mammalian Genome Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (FANTOM5 CAGE) dataset were collected. RNA-seq profiling data of 13 organ types with para-carcinoma normal tissues from TCGA and 14 organ types with normal tissues from FANTOM5 CAGE were analyzed in order to explore and validate the expression of ACE2 on the mucosa of oral cavity. Further, single-cell transcriptomes from an independent data generated in-house were used to identify and confirm the ACE2-expressing cell composition and proportion in oral cavity. The results demonstrated that the ACE2 expressed on the mucosa of oral cavity. Interestingly, this receptor was highly enriched in epithelial cells of tongue. Preliminarily, those findings have explained the basic mechanism that the oral cavity is a potentially high risk for 2019-nCoV infectious susceptibility and provided a piece of evidence for the future prevention strategy in dental clinical practice as well as daily life.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common malignancy with dismal prognosis without effective therapeutic options in advanced cases. The evolution from oral potentially malignant disorders to ...OSCC has poorly described underlying epigenetic features. With the ability of silencing or activation of vital genes, histone modifications’ and modifiers’ potentiality for early diagnosis, prognosis predicting, and therapy in OSCC were evaluated by extensive epigenetic studies. This review investigates the roles of dysregulated histone modifications and the associated modifying enzymes in OSCC onset and progression. Also, we focus on the current advances of histone modifications as therapeutic targets and the potential value of epi‐drugs.
Receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1) has been shown to promote oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) progression, and RACK1 expression levels have been negatively correlated with prognosis in ...patients with OSCC. Here, we investigated the impact of RACK1 OSCC expression on the recruitment and differentiation of tumor‐associated macrophages. High RACK1 expression in OSCC cells correlated with increased M2 macrophage infiltration in tumor samples from a clinical cohort study. Moreover, the combination of RACK1 expression and the M2/M1 ratio could successfully predict prognosis in OSCC. OSCC cells with high RACK1 expression inhibited the migration of THP‐1 cells, promoted M2‐like macrophage polarization in vitro, and increased the proportion of M2‐like macrophages in a xenograft mouse model. Moreover, both M1‐ and M2‐like macrophage polarization‐associated proteins were induced in macrophages cocultured with RACK1‐silenced cell supernatant. A mechanistic study revealed that the expression and secretion of C‐C motif chemokine 2 (CCL2), C‐C motif chemokine 5 (CCL5), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and interleukin‐1 (IL‐1) are closely related to RACK1 expression. In addition, blocking nuclear factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) could promote M2‐like macrophage polarization. These results indicate that RACK1 and the M2/M1 ratio are predictors of a poor prognosis in OSCC. RACK1 promotes M2‐like polarization by regulating NF‐κB and could be used as a potential therapeutic target for antitumor immunity.
High receptor for activated C kinase 1 expression OSCC cells could inhibit the expression and secretion of proinflammatory factors and macrophage chemokines by regulating nuclear factor‐kappa B, thus inhibiting the massive recruitment of macrophages and promoting M2‐like macrophage polarization, inducing a chronic smoldering inflammation microenvironment and promoting the development of tumors.
Bacterial infection poses a significant threat to wound healing, and the preparation of novel wound dressings is very important. However, currently reported dressings serve as traditional physical ...barriers or functional ones with limited effects, such as antibacterial effect or adhesion. There is growing demand for developing wound dressing materials with antibacterial effect, good adhesion, proper degradation within the wound recovery time, and simple synthesis. In this study, based on a natural plant extract - tannic acid (TA) and natural guanosine (G), a supramolecular soft hydrogel (G-TA hydrogel) was successfully synthesized based on dynamic borate esters in a one-pot reaction. The hydrogel showed excellent antibacterial and adhesive properties and could be degraded within three days
in vivo
. In addition, the G-TA hydrogel also showed remarkable antioxidant capability, excellent injectability, a long
in vitro
lifespan, and good cytocompatibility on L929 cells. Furthermore, the hydrogel could accelerate the healing of full-thickness wounds on the back skin of mice, indicating its promising applications in wound repair.
Infected wound healing has been a concern so it is crucial to develop new multifunctional hydrogel that integrates antibacterial, adhesive and antioxidant properties.
Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) is characterized by a spectrum of clinicopathological features and a high risk of malignant transformation. In this study, we aimed to delineate the dynamic ...changes in molecular signature during PVL progression and identify the potential cell subtypes that play a key role in the premalignant evolution of PVL.
We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on three biopsy samples from a large PVL lesion. These samples exhibited a histopathological continuum of PVL progression.
By analyzing the transcriptome profiles of 27,611 cells from these samples, we identified ten major cell lineages and revealed that cellular remodeling occurred during the progression of PVL lesions, including epithelial, stromal, and immune cells. Epithelial cells are shifted to tumorigenic states and secretory patterns at the premalignant stage. Immune cells showed growing immunosuppressive phenotypes during PVL progression. Remarkably, two novel cell subtypes INSR
endothelial cells and ASPN
fibroblasts, were discovered and may play vital roles in microenvironment remodeling, such as angiogenesis and stromal fibrosis, which are closely involved in malignant transformation.
Our work is the first to depict the cellular landscape of PVL and speculate that disease progression may be driven by functional remodeling of multiple cell subtypes.
Serum response factor (SRF) and myocardial-associated transcription factor-A (MRTF-A) had different regulatory effects on the tumorigenesis and development in different cancers. However, the role of ...MRTF-A/SRF in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains to be determined.
CCK-8 assay, cell scratch experiment, and transwell invasion assay were conducted to investigate the effects of MRTF-A/SRF on biological behavior of OSCC cells. The expression pattern and prognostic value of MRTF-A/SRF in OSCC were analyzed based on cBioPortal website and TCGA database. Protein-protein interaction network was visualized to identify protein functions. Go and KEGG pathway analyses were performed to investigate related pathways. The effect of MRTF-A/SRF on epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) of OSCC cells was explored by western blot assay.
Overexpression of MRTF-A/SRF inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of OSCC cells in vitro. High expression of SRF was related to better prognosis of OSCC patients on hard palate, alveolar ridge, and oral tongue. Besides, overexpression of MRTF-A/SRF inhibited the EMT of OSCC cells.
SRF was closely related to the prognosis of OSCC. High expression of SRF and its co-activator MRTF-A inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of OSCC cells in vitro, possibly via EMT suppression.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the predominant subtype of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, characterized by a challenging prognosis. In this study, we established a murine model of oral ...carcinogenesis using 4‐nitroquinoline‐1‐oxide (4‐NQO) induction to investigate the impact of immunotherapy on microenvironmental alterations. Mice in the precancerous condition were randomly divided into two groups: one receiving programmed death‐1 (PD1) monoclonal antibody treatment and the other, control immunoglobulin G. Our observations showed that while PD1 blockade effectively delayed the progression of carcinogenesis, it did not completely impede or reverse it. To unravel the underlying reasons for the limited effectiveness of PD1 blockade, we collected tongue lesions and applied mass cytometry (CyTOF) and RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) to characterize the microenvironment. CyTOF analysis revealed an increased macrophage subset (expressing high levels of IFNγ and iNOS) alongside a diminished Th1‐like subset (exhibiting low expression of TCF7) and three myeloid‐derived suppressor cell subsets (displaying low expression of MHC Class II or IFNγ) following anti‐PD1 treatment. Notably, we observed an increased presence of cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) expressing collagen‐related genes after PD1 blockade. Furthermore, we found a negative correlation between the infiltration levels of CAFs and CD8+ T cells. These findings were validated in murine tongue tissue slides, and publicly available multi‐omics datasets. Our results suggest that CAFs may impair the therapeutic efficacy of PD1 blockade in oral carcinogenesis by the remodeling of the extracellular matrix.
Abstract
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignancies in the head and neck with a poor prognosis. Oral cancer development is a multistep process involving ...carcinogenesis. Though significant advances in cancer immunotherapy over the years, there is lack of evidence for T-cell exhaustion during oral carcinogenesis. Clinical specimens from healthy donors and patients diagnosed with oral leukoplakia (OLK) or OSCC were collected for immunohistochemical staining with PD-L1, CD86, CD8, PD-1 and CTLA-4 antibodies. Meanwhile, chemically induced mouse models of oral carcinogenesis were constructed with 4-nitroquinolone-N-oxide induction. Exhaustion status of T cells was measured by flow cytometry for spleens and by multiplex immunohistochemistry for formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lesions in multiple stages of oral carcinogenesis. The efficacy of PD-1 blockade with or without cisplatin treatment was evaluated on the mice in precancerous and OSCC stages. We observed higher expression of PD-1 in the human OLK and OSCC tissues compared with the normal, while low expression CTLA-4 in all oral mucosa tissues. Animal experiments showed that the exhausted CD4+ T cells existed much earlier than exhausted CD8+ T cells, and an increased ratio of stem-like exhausted T cells and partially exhausted T cells were detected in the experimental groups. Besides, the expression of immune checkpoint markers (PDCD1, CTLA4 and HAVCR2) was strongly positively correlated with cytokines (IFNG and IL-2). In summary, T-cell exhaustion plays a vital role in oral carcinogenesis, and PD-1 blockade can prevent the progression of oral carcinogenesis.
In this study, we revealed that exhausted T cells played a vital role in oral carcinogenesis, which could be confirmed by the evidences from clinical specimens and the animal models. And PD-1 blockade can prevent the progression of oral carcinogenesis.
With recent developments in photosensitizers and light delivery systems, topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) has become the fourth alternative therapeutic approach ...in the management of oral leucoplakia (OLK) due to its minimally invasive nature, efficacy, and low risk of systemic side effects and disfigurement. This report presents step-by-step guidelines for applying topical ALA-PDT in the management of OLK based on both the clinical experience of the authors and a systematic review of the current literature. Studies using protocols with standardized parameters and randomized clinical trials at multiple centres with adequate sample sizes and both interim and long-term follow-ups are needed before universally applicable guidelines can be produced in this field.
Abstract Cell-based therapy is considered a promising approach to achieving predictable periodontal regeneration. In this study, the regenerative potential of cell sheets derived from different parts ...of the periodontium (gingival connective tissue, alveolar bone and periodontal ligament) were investigated in an athymic rat periodontal defect model. Periodontal ligament (PDLC), alveolar bone (ABC) and gingival margin-derived cells (GMC) were obtained from human donors. The osteogenic potential of the primary cultures was demonstrated in vitro . Cell sheets supported by a calcium phosphate coated melt electrospun polycaprolactone (CaP-PCL) scaffold were transplanted to denuded root surfaces in surgically created periodontal defects, and allowed to heal for 1 and 4 weeks. The CaP-PCL scaffold alone was able to promote alveolar bone formation within the defect after 4 weeks. The addition of ABC and PDLC sheets resulted in significant periodontal attachment formation. The GMC sheets did not promote periodontal regeneration on the root surface and inhibited bone formation within the CaP-PCL scaffold. In conclusion, the combination of either PDLC or ABC sheets with a CaP-PCL scaffold could promote periodontal regeneration, but ABC sheets were not as effective as PDLC sheets in promoting new attachment formation.
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