Effects of Vitamin D on tumor cell proliferation and migration, tumor initiation and anti-tumor immune response in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

By L. Brust, Maximilian Linxweiler, Jana Schnatmann, J. Kühn, M. Knebel, F. Braun, S. Wemmert, Michael D Menger, Bernhard Schick, M. Holick and 3 more. Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie, 2024

11 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are among the six most common cancers, with a constantly poor prognosis. Vitamin D has been found to have antineoplastic and immunomodulatory properties in various cancers. This study investigated the impact of Vitamin D on the initiation and progression as well as antitumor immune response in HNSCCs, both in vitro and in vivo. Methods: An immunocompetent, orthotopic oral carcinogenesis mouse model was used to examine the influence of Vitamin D3 substitution on HNSCC initiation and progression in vivo. Tumor immune infiltration was analyzed by immunohistochemistry targeting CD3, CD8, NKR-P1C, FOXP3, and CD163. Two HPV− and two HPV+ HNSCC cell lines were treated with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 to analyze effects on tumor cell proliferation, migration and transcriptomic changes using RNA-sequencing, differential gene expression and gene set enrichment analysis. Results: Vitamin D3 treatment led to a significant suppression of HNSCC initiation and progression, while also stimulating tumor immune infiltration with CD3+, CD8+ and NKR-P1C+ cells and lowering levels of M2 macrophages and Treg cells in vivo. In vitro experiments showed an inhibition of HNSCC cell proliferation and migration in HPV+ and HPV− cell lines. RNA-sequencing showed significant regulations in IL6 JAK STAT3, hypoxia signaling and immunomodulatory pathways upon Vitamin D3 treatment. Conclusion: The findings of our study highlight the promising potential of Vitamin D in the therapeutic repertoire for HNSCC patients given its immune modulating, anti-proliferative and anti-migratory properties. Clinical transferability of those in vitro and in vivo effects should be further validated in clinical trials.

Subfields: Oncology, Otorhinolaryngology, Pharmacology

View Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2024.117497

Citations in the corpus

• Impact of T Cell Exhaustion and Stroma Senescence on Tumor Cell Biology and Clinical Outcome of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (2024, unknown): “In the context of possible adjuvants, vitamin D has been shown in preclinical and retrospective clinical studies to be a positive prognostic marker, as well as a possible agent for increasing response rates due to its immunomodulatory properties [11,12].”
• Vitamin D3 promotes regression of endometrial implants comparable to buserelin in a rat model of endometriosis (2026, unknown): “Vitamin D3, beyond its established role in calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism, regulates multiple signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis (Brust et al. 2024 ; Veeresh et al. 2023 ).”
• Neither VitD nor VitD binding protein or VitD receptor has causal effect on cancers: a Mendelian randomization study (2025, unknown): “Mechanisms include inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, dedifferentiation, invasion and metastasis [22, 23]; regulation of cancer cell metabolism; protection against oxidative stress [24]; immune modulation within tumor microenvironments [24].”
• Suppression of Cornea Stromal Fibrosis by Vitamin D (2025, unknown): “Vit D is also increasingly recognized for protective effects in head and neck tissues and cancers [54].”
• Transcriptomic profile induced by calcitriol in CaSki human cervical cancer cell line (2025, unknown): “For instance, a robust immune response against HPV enhances the efficacy of calcitriol [89,90].”