Expression of LDHA, Pan-Kla Level and H3K18la associates with clinical progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) represents one of the major subtypes of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), imposing substantial health burdens and necessitates comprehensive clinical interventions. Lactylation, a newly discovered protein post-translational modification (PTM), has recently been recognized as a critical regulatory element in cancer biology and LDHA plays a central role in lactylation modulation. H3K18la, one of the crucial types of histone lactylation, has drawn increasing attention of studies of malignant tumors in recent years. There is no study about the relationship between the expression of LDHA, Pan-Kla level and H3K18la and clinical characteristics and prognosis of LSCC patients. It was analyzed that the mRNA expression of LDHA in HNSC in TCGA databases. The expression of LDHA, Pan-Kla level, and H3K18la was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in a large scale of LSCC patients, evaluating their associations with clinicopathologic features and prognosis. LDHA mRNA was significantly upregulated in HNSC and was associated with poorer prognosis by bioinformatic analysis. Expression of LDHA, Pan-Kla level and H3K18la were higher in LSCC tissues than in non-cancerous laryngeal epithelial tissues. LDHA expression and Pan-Kla level were significantly associated with T stage. H3K18la expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that high expression of LDHA, Pan-Kla level and H3K18la was associated with shorter OS in LSCC patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified positive LDHA expression as an independent prognostic indicator for LSCC. LDHA, Pan-Kla level and H3K18la were upregulated in LSCC tissues and were associated with shorter OS. LDHA may serve as an independent prognostic biomarker for patients with LSCC.