AUTHOR=Peña-Oyarzún Daniel , Reyes Montserrat , Hernández-Cáceres María Paz , Kretschmar Catalina , Morselli Eugenia , Ramirez-Sarmiento Cesar A. , Lavandero Sergio , Torres Vicente A. , Criollo Alfredo 

TITLE=Role of Autophagy in the Microenvironment of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.602661

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2020.602661

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=Oral squamous cell carcinoma, OSCC, the most common type of oral cancer, affects more than 275,000 people per year worldwide. OSCC is very aggressive, as most patients die after 3 to 5 years post-diagnosis. The initiation and progression of OSCC is multifactorial: smoking, alcohol consumption and human papilloma virus infection are among the causes that promote OSCC development. Although OSCC involves abnormal growth and migration of oral epithelial cells, other cell types such as fibroblasts and immune cells form the carcinoma niche. An underlying inflammatory state within the oral tissue promotes differential stress-related responses that favor OSCC. Autophagy is an intracellular degradation process that allows cancer cells to survive under stress conditions. Autophagy degrades cellular components by sequestering them in vesicles called autophagosomes, which ultimately fuse with lysosomes. Although several autophagy markers have been associated with OSCC, to date it is not clear whether up- or down-regulation of autophagy favors OSCC progression. Autophagy levels during OSCC are both timing- and cell-specific. Here we discuss how autophagy is required to establish a new cellular microenvironment in OSCC, and how autophagy drives the phenotypic change of OSCC cells by promoting a crosstalk between carcinoma cells with fibroblasts and immune cells.