Ciarka Aleksandra, Skowronek Filip, Miłosz Przemysław, Kunc Michał, Burdach Robert, Sakowicz-Burkiewicz Monika, Jereczek-Fossa Barbara, Starzyńska Anna, Pęksa Rafał
Department of Pathomorphology, Medical University of Gdansk, 7 Dębinki Street, 80-211 Gdańsk, Poland.
Student Scientific Circle, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Medical University of Silesia, 15 Poniatowski Street, 40-055 Katowice, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Jul 16;26(14):6847. doi: 10.3390/ijms26146847.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a significant global health challenge, representing 90% of oral malignancies. Despite therapeutic advances, patient outcomes remain poor, highlighting the need for novel prognostic biomarkers and treatment targets. We investigated the expression patterns of genes and their corresponding proteins (TrkA, TrkB, and TrkC) in OSCC, analyzing their relationships with clinical outcomes and potential as therapeutic targets. We examined 93 OSCC tissue samples using immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time PCR. Protein expression was quantified using the H-score method. We analyzed correlations between Trk expression, clinicopathological parameters, and 2-year survival rates using chi-square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. TrkA showed near-universal expression (97.8%-91 patients) in OSCC samples, with high expression levels significantly correlating with lower tumor grade ( = 0.014) and improved 2-year survival ( = 0.011). While TrkB and TrkC were expressed in 65.5% and 84.9% of cases, respectively, neither showed significant associations with clinical parameters. and mRNA levels demonstrated a strong positive correlation (R = 0.64, = 0.002), suggesting coordinated regulation. Our findings establish TrkA as a promising positive prognostic marker in OSCC, warranting investigation as a therapeutic target. The strong correlation between and expression suggests shared regulatory mechanisms in OSCC pathogenesis. Further studies with larger cohorts and longer follow-up periods are needed to validate these findings and explore their therapeutic implications.
口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）仍然是一项重大的全球健康挑战，占口腔恶性肿瘤的90%。尽管治疗取得了进展，但患者预后仍然很差，这凸显了对新型预后生物标志物和治疗靶点的需求。我们研究了OSCC中基因及其相应蛋白（TrkA、TrkB和TrkC）的表达模式，分析它们与临床结果的关系以及作为治疗靶点的潜力。我们使用免疫组织化学和定量实时PCR检测了93份OSCC组织样本。使用H评分法对蛋白表达进行定量。我们使用卡方检验、曼-惠特尼U检验和Kaplan-Meier生存分析来分析Trk表达、临床病理参数和2年生存率之间的相关性。TrkA在OSCC样本中显示出近乎普遍的表达（97.8%，91例患者），高表达水平与较低的肿瘤分级显著相关（P = 0.014），并改善了2年生存率（P = 0.011）。虽然TrkB和TrkC分别在65.5%和84.9%的病例中表达，但两者均未显示与临床参数有显著关联。TrkA和TrkC mRNA水平显示出强烈的正相关（R = 0.64，P = 0.002），表明存在协同调节。我们的研究结果确立了TrkA作为OSCC中有前景的阳性预后标志物，值得作为治疗靶点进行研究。TrkA和TrkC表达之间的强相关性表明在OSCC发病机制中存在共同的调节机制。需要更大样本量和更长随访期的进一步研究来验证这些发现并探索其治疗意义。
