Significance of SLC1A5 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A bioinformatics and in-vitro analysis

Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is associated with high mortality due to tumor proliferation and metastasis. Altered function of metabolic transporters such as glutamine transporter SLC1A5 in tumor cells and their microenvironment plays a crucial role in proliferation and metastasis. The aim of this study was to assess the expression of SLC1A5 in HNSCC and evaluate its prognostic significance using computational analysis. SLC1A5 expression in tumor and normal tissue was analyzed followed by computational prognosis analysis in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-HNSCC cohort. Survival analyses were performed using Kaplan–Meier analysis. Differences between the groups were statistically evaluated using the log-rank test, and hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. SLC1A5 expression was validated on separate HNSCC tumor and normal tissue samples using qPCR. Differential expression studies showed that SLC1A5 was significantly overexpressed in HNSCC tumors as compared to normal tissues in TCGA cohort, which was confirmed with qPCR analysis in separate HNSCC cohort (p < 0.05). High SLC1A5 was associated with low overall survival in TCGA cohort. While STRING analysis does not confer great significance to prognosis, it accentuates SLC1A5 as a hub in amino acid metabolism and tumor progression pathways in HNSC. The overexpression of SLC1A5 is linked with unfavorable survival in HNSCC, highlighting its value to the metabolic reprogramming in HNSCC.