Transcriptome analysis of human oral squamous cancer SAS cells as an early response after boron neutron capture...

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on nuclear reactions between thermal neutron and boron-10 preferentially distributed in the cancer cells. ¹⁰B-boronophenylalanine (BPA) is the approved drug for treatment of oral cancers for BNCT. However, the predictive biomarkers to evaluate therapeutic efficacy and side-effects have not been clarified yet. Here we performed comprehensive analysis of mRNA expression using human oral squamous carcinoma SAS cells after BPA-BNCT. The expression of particular mRNAs including inflammatory and immune-related responses and transcription factors, namely CSF2, ATF3, MAFB, PTGS2 and TNFAIP3 was increased 24 h after neutron irradiation of therapeutic dose of BPA-BNCT. NF-κB pathway genes were also activated after BNCT. The early increase of the gene product of CSF2 gene, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), in culture supernatant of SAS cells was observed by ELISA analysis after BPA-BNCT at a setting dose of 24 Gy-eq. The GM-CSF level was also increased after equivalent dose of gamma-ray and carbon beam irradiation. GM-CSF may be involved in local and systemic early responses of BNCT for particular types of cancer.