Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Center of Stomatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Institute of Oral Precancerous Lesions, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Jul 11;13:943686. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.943686. eCollection 2022.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), as one of the common malignant tumors, seriously threatens human health. NEK6 (Never in Mitosis A (NIMA) related kinases 6), as a cyclin, promotes cancer cell proliferation and cancer progression. However, the prognostic value of NEK6 and its correlation with immune cell infiltration in HNSCC remain unclear. In this study, we comprehensively elucidated the prognostic role and potential function of NEK6 expression in HNSCC. The expression of NEK6 was significantly up-regulated by immunohistochemistry in HNSCC. Upregulation of NEK6 expression in gene expression studies predicts poor prognosis in HNSCC patients. The results of Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene set variation analysis indicated that NEK6 is mainly involved in extracellular matrix metabolism and EMT processes. The expression of NEK6 increased with the level of immune cell infiltration and the expression of various immune checkpoints. In conclusion, NEK6 may serve as a candidate prognostic predictor and may predict the response of HNSCC patients to immunotherapy.
头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）是一种常见的恶性肿瘤，严重威胁着人类的健康。NEK6（Never in Mitosis A（NIMA）related kinases 6）作为一种细胞周期蛋白，促进癌细胞增殖和癌症进展。然而，NEK6 的预后价值及其与 HNSCC 免疫细胞浸润的相关性尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们全面阐明了 NEK6 表达在 HNSCC 中的预后作用和潜在功能。免疫组织化学染色显示，NEK6 在 HNSCC 中表达显著上调。基因表达研究中 NEK6 表达的上调预示着 HNSCC 患者预后不良。基因本体论（GO）、京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）和基因集变异分析的结果表明，NEK6 主要参与细胞外基质代谢和 EMT 过程。NEK6 的表达随着免疫细胞浸润水平和各种免疫检查点的表达而增加。总之，NEK6 可能是一个候选预后预测因子，并可能预测 HNSCC 患者对免疫治疗的反应。
