Low expression of RalGAPs associates with the poorer overall survival of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

• Published in: Translational cancer research Vol. 10; no. 12; pp. 5085 - 5094
• Main Authors: Liu, Shan, Shi, Congyu, Wang, Xiaoyi, Ma, Xiangrui, Gao, Pan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China AME Publishing Company 01.12.2021
• Subjects: Original; DNA methylation; GTPase-activating proteins; Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC); Ral protein
• ISSN: 2218-676X; 2219-6803
• DOI: 10.21037/tcr-21-1489

The role of Ral and RalGAPs on the progression of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) remains unclear. The predesigned siRNAs against RalGAPs were transfected into cells to evaluate the effect on RalA activation. The Data from TCGA and GTEx were combined to analyze the pan-cancer gene expression of RalA and RalGAPs in cancer and adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to assess the predictive value of RalA and RalGAPs expression on the overall survival of patients with HNSC. Methylation-specific PCR and next-generation bisulfite sequencing were used to evaluate the association between DNA methylation and the down-regulation of RalGAPs. RalGAPs negatively regulated RalA activation. HNSC patients with low level of had worse overall survival. The promoter of was widely methylated in comparison to and the DNA methylation level of promoter was increased in HNSC tissues and associated with the presence of neck lymph node metastasis. RalA and RalGAPs could act as a specific predictor to assess the prognosis of HNSC. DNA methylation might be a potential mechanism that downregulated the expression.