Research Paper|Volume 14, Issue 10|pp 4556—4571

The impact of ALDH7A1 variants in oral cancer development and prognosis

Hsueh-Ju Lu^1,², Chun-Yi Chuang^2,³, Mu-Kuan Chen^4,^5,⁶, Chun-Wen Su^6,⁷, Wei-En Yang^6,⁷, Chia-Ming Yeh^5,⁶, Kuan-Ming Lai⁸, Chih-Hsin Tang^9,^10,¹¹, Chiao-Wen Lin^12,¹³, Shun-Fa Yang^6,⁷

¹Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
²School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
³Department of Otolaryngology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
⁴Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
⁵Oral Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
⁶Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
⁷Department of Medical Research, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
⁸Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
⁹School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
¹⁰Chinese Medicine Research Center, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
¹¹Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan
¹²Institute of Oral Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
¹³Department of Dentistry, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Received: November 4, 2021Accepted: May 19, 2022Published: May 25, 2022

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204099

Copyright: © 2022 Lu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The gene encoding aldehyde dehydrogenase 7 family member A1 (ALDH7A1) has been associated with the development and prognosis in multiple cancers; however, the role of ALDH7A1 polymorphisms in oral cancer remains unknown. For this purpose, the influences of ALDH7A1 rs13182402 and rs12659017 on oral cancer development and prognosis were analyzed. Our resulted showed that ALDH7A1 rs13182402 genotype had less pathologic nodal metastasis among betel quid chewer. ALDH7A1 rs13182402 also corresponded to higher expressions in upper aerodigestive mucosa, whole blood, the musculoskeletal system and oral cancer tissues than did the ALDH7A1 wild type. Furthermore, ALDH7A1 overexpression in oral cancer cells increased in vitro migration, whereas its silencing reduced cell migration. Conversely, ALDH7A1 expression in tumor tissues and in patients with advanced disease was lower than that in normal tissues and in patients with early-stage disease. When the patients were classified into ALDH7A1-high and -low-expression groups, the high-ALDH7A1 group had superior outcomes in progression-free survival than the low-ALDH7A1 group (5-year survival of 58.7% vs. 48.0%, P = 0.048) did. In conclusion, patients with high ALDH7A1 expression might, however, have more favorable prognoses than those with low ALDH7A1 expression have.