Abstract 362: The regulation of SOX7 and its tumor suppressive role in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract SRY-related HMG-box 7(SOX7), a transcription factor belonging to the SOX family, has been reported to be down-regulated in some types of cancers. However, its biologic role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains unknown. We found expression of SOX7 protein was decreased in OSCC tissues compared with normal oral mucosa. SOX7 expression in patients with OSCC was inversely associated with positive lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and poor prognosis. These results were in accordance with data obtained from our in vitro experiments on the OSCC cell lines. Moreover, ectopic expression of SOX7 suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in HSC-4 and SCC-9 cells. Importantly, we discovered that SOX7 expression likely inhibited vasculogenic mimicry formation associated with clinically poor outcome and impaired expression of VE-cadherin in OSCC cell lines as well as lung cancer and breast cancer cells. Our findings suggest that SOX7 could be a potential marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with OSCC and plays an important role as a tumor suppressor in oral tumorigenesis and progression. This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning [2017R1D1A1B03029317, 2018R1D1A1B07043080, and 2019R1A2C1085896]. Citation Format: Chi-Hyun Ahn, Kyoung Ok Hong, Ji-Ae Shin, Seong-Doo Hong, Sung-Dae Cho. The regulation of SOX7 and its tumor suppressive role in oral squamous cell carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 362.