Modulation of IL-1β reprogrammes the tumor microenvironment to interrupt oral carcinogenesis

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) development is a multistage process includes the normal, dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) stages. Recently, increasing evidence has suggested that the tumor microenvironment (TME) is an integral part of malignant transformation. Exploring certain key node genes in TME for future intervention in dysplasia to interrupt oral carcinogenesis was the primary goal of this research. To achieve this goal, systems biology approaches were first applied to the epithelia and fibroblasts collected at sequential stages in a 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO)-induced rat oral carcinogenesis model. Through bioinformatics network construction, IL-1 beta was identified as one of the key node genes in TME during carcinogenesis. Immunohistochemical staining of human and rat samples demonstrated that IL-1 beta expression patterns were parallel to the stages of malignant transformation. Silencing IL-1 beta with lentivirus-delivered shRNA significantly inhibited oral squamous cell carcinoma cell growth both in vivo and in vitro. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that IL-1 beta may be a chemoprevention target in TME during oral carcinogenesis. Therefore, we targeted IL-1 in the TME by oral mucosal injection of an IL-1 receptor antagonist in 4NQO rats. The results demonstrated that targeting IL-1 could interrupt oral carcinogenesis by reprogramming the TME.