Transcriptomic Landscape of Gene Expression Profiles and Pathways in Juvenile-Onset Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis Tumor Tissues and Human Papillomavirus 6 and 11 E6-and E7-Overexpressing Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines

Juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JORRP) is the most common benign laryngeal neoplasm in children and is considered to be primarily caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11. In the present study, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of 8 tumors and 4 adjacent nontumor tissues to explore the transcriptional profiles of JORRP tumors. A total of 1,151 upregulated genes involved in the interleukin-17 (IL-17) signaling pathway and 1,620 downregulated genes involved in dysregulated inflammatory responses were reported. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays confirmed the upregulation of IL-17C in JORRP tumors compared with paired adjacent nontumor tissues. Real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assays showed positive correlations between CXCL1 (CXC chemokine ligands 1) and CXCL8 and the Derkay Clinic Score of JORRP patients. We further overexpressed the HPV6 or HPV11 E6 and E7 oncogenes in SNU-1076 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines and carried out RNA-seq. We found that HPV6-E6-E7 gene overexpression resulted in only 16 upregulated genes and 1 downregulated gene; however, HPV11-E6-E7 gene overexpression resulted in 1,776 upregulated genes and 461 downregulated genes compared with the control cell lines. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of HPV11-E6-E7 gene overexpression were positively enriched in the DNA replication-related terms by Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and the IL-17 signaling pathway by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. Taken together, our present findings revealed IL-17 signaling pathway-related gene profiles that might contribute to disease pathogenesis and that the HPV11 E6 and E7 oncogenes promote disease progression by enhancing tumor growth and activating the IL-17 signaling pathway in JORRP patients. IMPORTANCE Juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JORRP) is primarily caused by human papillomavirus 6 (HPV6) and HPV11 infection; however, the gene signatures of tumors are currently less understood. In the present study, we performed RNA sequencing and found upregulated genes associated with the IL-17 signaling pathway and downregulated genes associated with inflammatory-related pathways. Further RNA sequencing was performed in HPV6-E6-E7- or HPV11-E6-E7-overexpressing SNU-1076 HNSCC cells lines to explore the potential pathogenic molecular mechanisms of HPV virus. We found that HPV11-E6-E7 overexpression resulted in gene expression related to DNA replication and the IL-17 signaling pathway. Our results suggested enriched that the IL-17 signaling pathway resulting from HPV11 infection might contribute to JORRP pathogenesis.