Laurel B Darragh, Alexander Nguyen, Tiffany T Pham, Shaquia Idlett-Ali, Michael W Knitz, Jacob Gadwa, Sanjana Bukkapatnam, Sophia Corbo, Nicholas A Olimpo, Diemmy Nguyen, Benjamin Van Court, Brooke Neupert, Justin Yu, Richard B Ross, Michaele Corbisiero, Khalid N M Abdelazeem, Sean P Maroney, David C Galindo, Laith Mukdad, Anthony Saviola, Molishree Joshi, Ruth White, Yazeed Alhiyari, Von Samedi, Adrie Van Bokhoven, Maie St John, Sana D Karam
BACKGROUND: Perineural invasion (PNI) and nerve density within the tumor microenvironment (TME) have long been associated with worse outcomes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This prompted an investigation into how nerves within the tumor microenvironment affect the adaptive immune system and tumor growth. METHODS: We used RNA sequencing analysis of human tumor tissue from a recent HNSCC clinical trial, proteomics of human nerves from HNSCC patients, and syngeneic orthotopic murine models of HPV-unrelated HNSCC to investigate how sensory nerves modulate the adaptive immune system...
February 22, 2024: Med