Background: This study aimed to identify a candidate gene associated with paclitaxel (PTX) resistance and to evaluate functionally its biological role in the PTX-resistant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines and clinical specimens.
Methods: Microarray data series containing samples of different types of cancers resistant to PTX were analyzed and then a candidate gene associated with PTX resistance was identified using various bioinformatics tools. After the suppression of the target gene expression, changes in cell viability and colony-forming ability were evaluated in PTX-resistant FaDu and SCC-9 cell lines.
Results: Bioinformatics analyses of upregulated genes in PTX-resistant cancer cells indicated that OAS3 was associated with PTX resistance. The downregulation of OAS3 expression significantly reduced the viability and colony-forming capacity of PTX-resistant SCC-9 cells by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase.
Conclusions: The therapeutic targeting of OAS3 may resensitize PTX-resistant HNSCC cells with high OAS3 expression to PTX treatment.
Keywords: FaDu; OAS3; SCC‐9; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; paclitaxel resistance.
© 2024 The Authors. Head & Neck published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.