Abstract :
Keywords: IL-17; IL-17RA; Colorectal carcinoma; Prognostic biomarker; Tumour progression Abstract Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine found in various cancers. Current evidence indicates that IL-17 plays a vital role in tumour initiation and progression in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) via binding with its receptor, IL-17RA. However, the association between clinicopathological features and presence of IL-17 and IL-17RA protein in primary CRC tissues remains unclear. This study also investigates the difference between the presence of IL-17 and IL-17RA in the paired tumour tissues versus adjacent normal tissues. The presence of IL-17RA and IL-17 protein in primary CRC tissues was determined by immunohistochemistry. Associations between clinicopathological features and IL-17RA and IL-17 immunoreactivity, were analyzed by [chi]2 tests. We found that both IL-17RA (p=0.001) and IL-17 (p=0.025) in tumour cells of primary CRC tissues was significantly lower as compared to adjacent normal tissue. Positive immunoreactivity for IL-17RA and IL-17 were detected in 51.0% and 16.8% of tumour tissues, respectively. Furthermore, negative immunoreactivity of IL-17R was significantly associated with advanced stage according to TNM classifier (p=0.027), high grade of tumour (p=0.019), increased depth of tumour invasion (p=0.023) and vascular invasion (p=0.039). Positive IL-17 immunoreactivity was associated with advanced stage (p=0.008) and lymph node metastasis (p=0.008). Thus, this study suggests that the loss of IL-17RA expression occurs as tumour progresses and this may predict the aggressiveness of tumour whilst expression of IL-17 promotes tumour progression and lymph node metastasis. Thus, loss of IL-17RA could be a useful prognostic biomarker for tumour progression in CRC patients. Author Affiliation: (1) Immunology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia (2) Department of Pathology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (3) Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia (4) Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia (e) shf@upm.edu.my Article History: Registration Date: 05/13/2020 Received Date: 09/10/2019 Accepted Date: 05/12/2020 Online Date: 05/27/2020 Byline: