Zymosan promotes proliferation, Candida albicans adhesion and IL-1β production of oral squamous cell carcinoma in vitro

Xu Chen; Qingqiong Luo; Jieying Ding; Meng Yang; Ruiyang Zhang; Fuxiang Chen

doi:10.1186/s13027-020-00315-6

Zymosan promotes proliferation, Candida albicans adhesion and IL-1β production of oral squamous cell carcinoma in vitro

Infect Agent Cancer. 2020 Jul 31:15:51. doi: 10.1186/s13027-020-00315-6. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Xu Chen^#¹, Qingqiong Luo^#¹, Jieying Ding¹, Meng Yang¹, Ruiyang Zhang¹, Fuxiang Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Immunology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTUSM), Shanghai, 200011 China.
² Faculty of Medical Laboratory Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (SJTUSM), Shanghai, 200025 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and the effect of zymosan (ZYM), a component of the yeast cell wall, on oral cancer remains unclear. The CCK-8 proliferation assay was performed to evaluate the effect of ZYM on the proliferation of the OSCC cell lines WSU-HN4, WSU-HN6 and CAL27, and the potential mechanism was explored by quantitative real-time PCR, immunofluorescence assay and western blot. A cell adhesion assay was conducted to determine the adhesion of Candida albicans to OSCC cells, and the expression of related genes, including TLR2, MyD88, NLRP3, ASC, Caspase-1 and IL-1β, and proteins, including TLR2, MyD88, NF-κB p65, p-NF-κB p65 and E-cadherin was determined. Additionally, the pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α and IL-1β produced by OSCC cells were detected using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). In the current study, the CCK-8 assay showed that ZYM promoted the proliferation of WSU-HN4, WSU-HN6 and CAL27 cells via the TLR2/MyD88 pathway. The cell adhesion assay showed that the number of C. albicans cells per field significantly increased in ZYM-treated OSCC cells compared to controls. When treated with ZYM, OSCC cells secreted significantly more pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β, which could enhance inflammation in oral cancer microenvironment. In conclusion, ZYM from the fungal cell wall promotes the proliferation, C. albicans adhesion and IL-1β production in OSCC, as demonstrated by in vitro experiments.

Keywords: Candida albicans; Oral cancer; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Proliferation; Zymosan.