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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1435313
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of the Microbiome in Head and Neck Cancer View all 5 articles

Revealing the causal role of immune cells in malignant neoplasms of the head and neck: insights from Mendelian randomization

Provisionally accepted
EN ZHOU EN ZHOU 1Minghao Yuan Minghao Yuan 1Jiayu Zhong Jiayu Zhong 2*
  • 1 Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, Changsha, China
  • 2 Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Immune escape and immunosuppression play crucial roles in the onset and progression of head and neck malignant neoplasms (HNMN). However, previous studies on the relationship between immune cells and HNMN have yielded inconsistent results. Methods: In this study, we performed bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses using genome-wide association study (GWAS) and FinnGen databases to examine the association between 731 immune cell features and the risk of HNMN. We conducted sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of the findings. Results: Subsequent to false discovery rate (FDR) correction, four immune cell phenotypes were found to have a significant correlation with the risk of HNMN: CD28-CD8+ absolute cells (AC) (inverse-variance weighted [IVW] using the multiplicative random effects model: OR [95%]: 1.325 [1.413 to 1.539], P = 0.0002, Pfdr = 0.054), CD3 on secreting Treg (IVW: OR [95%]: 0.887 [0.835 to 0.941], P = 0.00007, Pfdr = 0.025), and CD3 on resting Treg (IVW: OR [95%]: 0.891 [0.842 to 0.943], P = 0.00006, Pfdr = 0.026). The results of the sensitivity analysis were aligned with the primary findings. No statistically significant effects of HNMN on the immunophenotypes were observed. Conclusions Our research indicates causal relationships among the three immune cell phenotypes and vulnerability to HNMN, providing new insights into immune infiltration within the HNMN tumour microenvironment and the development of immunotherapy drugs targeting checkpoint inhibitors of HNMN.

    Keywords: head and neck, Immunity, malignant neoplasm, Mendelian randomisation, phenotype

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 ZHOU, Yuan and Zhong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jiayu Zhong, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410008, Hunan Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.