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84th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

08.05. - 12.05.2013, Nürnberg

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Radio Sensitivity and Changes in Protein Expression in HPV-positive Head and Neck Cancer Cell Lines

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Christina Mayer - Department of Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, J. L. University, Giessen, Germany
  • author Steffen Wagner - Department of Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, J. L. University, Giessen, Germany
  • Claus Wittekindt - Department of Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, J. L. University, Giessen, Germany
  • Andrea Arenz - Department of Radiotherapy and Radiooncology, Phillips-University, Marburg, Germany
  • Maike Roth - Department of Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, J. L. University, Giessen, Germany
  • Frank Ziemann - Department of Radiotherapy and Radiooncology, Phillips-University, Marburg, Germany
  • Jens-Peter Klussmann - Department of Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery, J. L. University, Giessen, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 84th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Nürnberg, 08.-12.05.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. Doc13hno08

doi: 10.3205/13hno08, urn:nbn:de:0183-13hno084

Published: July 30, 2013

© 2013 Mayer et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Aim: Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) are often associated with an infection by human papilloma viruses (HPV). Patients with HPV-positive OSCC are known to respond much better to irradiation and therefore have a better prognosis. Until now, molecular causes for this observation are largely unknown. In this study we analysed the radio sensitivity of HPV positive and negative OSCC cell lines in vitro and examined signaling pathways related to radiation induced apoptosis and cell cycle regulation.

Methods: Surviving fractions of 4 HPV negative and of 4 HPV16 positive immortal OSCC cell lines were determined using colony forming assays after irradiation. Western Blot analyses were performed to compare selected proteins in untreated versus irradiated OSCC cell lines.

Results: Irradiated HPV positive and negative OSCC cell lines revealed significant differences in SF2-values (Surviving Fraction after 2Gy) (p=0,01) and HPV positive cell lines were more sensible to irradiation. Irradiation caused changes in protein expression and in expression kinetics of key regulatory proteins for apoptosis and cell cycle regulation, both in HPV positive and negative OSCC cell lines, but also within each entity.

Conclusion: Increased radio sensitivity of HPV-positive OSCC cell lines reflect the clinical response of HPV-associated OSCC to radiation therapy. Results indicated a difference in the activation of signaling pathways. In comparison to HPV unrelated tumors, irradiation seems to reactivate regulator proteins in HPV positive OSCC, which were previously inhibited via HPV oncoproteins. Thus, HPV positive OSCC seem to be more suitable for targeted therapy in future.