ECT2 promotes the occurrence and is a prognostic biomarker of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Epithelial Cell Transforming Sequence 2 (ECT2) has been implicated in various tumorigenic processes, including proliferation, migration, and invasion. However, its specific role in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains unclear. Methods: This study integrates transcriptomic and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data to explore the potential role of ECT2 in HNSCC. Differential expression analysis, cell-based assays (including CCK-8 for proliferation, transwell for migration, invasion assays, and flow cytometry for apoptosis and cell cycle analysis), and enrichment analysis were employed to investigate ECT2 expression levels and its regulatory effects on cellular phenotypes. Additionally, Mendelian randomization analysis was utilized to identify genes causally related to HNSCC using publicly available Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) data. Results: ECT2 is highly expressed in HNSCC samples and its downregulation inhibits proliferation, migration, invasion, induces apoptosis, and affects the cell cycle transition in HSC-3 cells. Furthermore, differential analysis revealed significant differences in the immune microenvironment and drug sensitivity between high and low ECT2 expression groups. The pathways enriched in different groups include CCR and its related chemokines, as well as HLA in antigen presentation and immune response. There are also significant differences in the sensitivity to drugs such as bortezomib and dasatinib between the two groups. Prognostic models constructed from prognosis-related genes showed significant differences in prognosis between high and low-risk groups. Integration of scRNA-seq data identified Monocyte clusters as high-scoring cell clusters based on genes interacting with ECT2.Mendelian randomization analysis identified three genes (LGALS2, SLC11A1, and TKT) causally related to HNSCC within this cell cluster. Conclusion: The findings suggest that ECT2 overexpression is associated with the survival rate of HNSCC, indicating its potential as a prognostic biomarker for this malignancy.