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PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy regulator genes in paranasal squamous cell carcinoma metastasis

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Abstract

Although there are many studies on the role of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy genes in the mechanism of head and neck cancer formation and prognostic significance, there is no study investigating the role of the genes in paranasal sinus carcinomas. The aim of the study was to assess the role of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy related gene expression changes in squamous cell carcinoma of paranasal sinuses with and without neck metastasis. Eight paranasal squamous cell carcinoma patients (five without and three with neck metastasis) were included. Tissues were obtained during the surgery. Total RNA was isolated from the tissues and cDNA synthesis was performed. Expression levels of the genes were determined using qRT-PCR method. The results were evaluated using the 2−∆∆Ct method, and fold changes of the gene expression levels in primary tumor and neck metastasis tissues were calculated according to the normal tissue. Expression levels of both PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and positive regulators of autophagy were significantly increased in metastasis-related two groups, especially in neck metastasis tissues. The increase in PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy related gene expression levels may support the metastatic character in paranasal squamous cell carcinomas. This is the first study to assess autophagy related genes in paranasal sinus cancer at transcriptome-level. Support of the transcriptome-level findings by the further protein analyses will contribute to the illumination of the rare paranasal sinus cancer molecular biology.

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Funding

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Biology Department, Ege University School of Medicine, Bornova, 35100, Izmir, Turkey

    Cigir Biray Avci & Bakiye Goker Bagca

  2. Otorhinolaryngology Department, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Baha Sezgin, Halil Bulent Karci & Sercan Gode

Authors
  1. Cigir Biray Avci
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  2. Baha Sezgin
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  3. Bakiye Goker Bagca
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  4. Halil Bulent Karci
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  5. Sercan Gode
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Contributions

CBA (design of the work, revising the work critically for important intellectual content), BS (acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data for the work; drafting the work), BGB (acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data for the work; drafting the work), HBK (design of the work), SG (design of the work, revising the work critically for important intellectual content).

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Correspondence to Bakiye Goker Bagca.

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All authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ethics committee approval was received for this study from the ethics committee of Ege University.

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Written informed consent was obtained from patients who participated in this study.

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Biray Avci, C., Sezgin, B., Goker Bagca, B. et al. PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and autophagy regulator genes in paranasal squamous cell carcinoma metastasis. Mol Biol Rep 47, 3641–3651 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05458-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05458-8

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