Most importantly, our findings provided new evidence that CSC-3436 played a crucial role in therapeutic targeting to Bmi1 and its molecular pathway in HNSCC, and it will be valuable in prognostic prediction and treatment.
Subgroup analysis indicted that high expression of CD133 (HR = 2.33, 95%CI: 1.42-3.83, P < 0.001), Oct-4(HR = 2.10, 95%CI: 1.36-3.22, P = 0.007) and Nanog (HR = 2.49, 95%CI: 1.66-3.72, P < 0.001) could predict poor OS in HNSCC patients respectively whereas overexpression of Bmi-1 was not related to the reduced OS in HNSCC patients (HR = 1.32, 95%CI: 0.66-2.65, P = 0.43).
Our findings indicate that pharmacological inhibition of Bmi1 is a novel therapeutic strategy for HNSCC patients, especially with those with aberrant Bmi1 overexpression.
In addition, NLRP3 inflammasome blockade by NLRP3 inhibitor MCC950 reduced sphere and colony number, also decreased the expression of BMI1, ALDH1 and CD44 in SCCHN cell lines.
Two CSC-like populations, CD44(high)/BMI1(high) and CD44(high)/ALDH(high), were enriched from HNSCC cell lines and evaluated for the expression of SMURF1 by qRT-PCR, flow cytometry, and immunoblotting.
The mRNA levels of CDK4, cyclin D1, gankyrin, SEI1, BMI1 were significantly elevated in both HARM and SCCHN (in comparison with control specimens), and statistically significant correlations were found among these markers in gene expression.
The dose-dependent upregulation of endogenous FOXM1 (isoform B) expression during tumour progression across a panel of normal primary NOK strains (n = 8), dysplasias (n = 5) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines (n = 11) correlated positively with endogenous expressions of HELLS, BMI1, DNMT1 and DNMT3B and negatively with p16(INK4A) and involucrin.
In summary, miR200c negatively modulates the expression of BMI1 but also significantly inhibits the metastatic capability of epithelial-mesenchymal transitions in malignant HNSCC by reducing the expression of BMI1/ZEB1.