Background
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. More recently, the administration of immune checkpoint inhibitors has opened up more possibilities for cancer treatment.
Conclusion
We performed a series of bioinformatics analyses in OSCC and identified three oncogenic indicators: LCK, IL10RA, TNFRSF1B. These findings uncovered the potential prognostic values of hub genes, thus laying foundations for in-depth research in OSCC.
Methods
We utilized a weighted gene co-expression network and the single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) algorithm in the TCGA database and identified a module highly correlated with regulatory T cell (Treg) abundance in OSCC. Subsequently, we verified the
Results
LCK, IL10RA, and TNFRSF1B were selected as biomarkers related to regulatory T cell infiltration. IHC staining showed significantly increased expression of LCK, IL10RA or TNFRSF1B in OSCC patients, and the expression levels were associated with tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, pathological stage, clinical status and the overall survival. In vitro experiments showed that LCK, IL10RA or TNFRSF1B knockdown efficiently impaired the proliferative, migrative, and invasive capacity in OSCC cell lines.