Identification of Possible Salivary Metabolic Biomarkers and Altered Metabolic Pathways in South American Patients Diagnosed with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Mariana de Sá Alves,
Nayara de Sá Rodrigues,
Celso Muller Bandeira,
José Francisco Sales Chagas,
Maria Beatriz Nogueira Pascoal,
Gabrielle Luana Jimenez Teodoro Nepomuceno,
Herculano da Silva Martinho,
Mônica Ghislaine Oliveira Alves,
Maria Anita Mendes,
Meriellen Dias,
Levy Anderson César Alves,
Janete Dias Almeida
Affiliations
Mariana de Sá Alves
Department of Biosciences and Diagnosis, Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (Unesp), São José dos Campos 12245-000, Brazil
Nayara de Sá Rodrigues
Department of Biosciences and Diagnosis, Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (Unesp), São José dos Campos 12245-000, Brazil
Celso Muller Bandeira
Department of Biosciences and Diagnosis, Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (Unesp), São José dos Campos 12245-000, Brazil
José Francisco Sales Chagas
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hospital of the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Campinas 13086-900, Brazil
Maria Beatriz Nogueira Pascoal
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hospital of the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Campinas 13086-900, Brazil
Gabrielle Luana Jimenez Teodoro Nepomuceno
Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH), Universidade Federal do ABC, Av. dos Estados, 5001, Santo André 09210-580, Brazil
Herculano da Silva Martinho
Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH), Universidade Federal do ABC, Av. dos Estados, 5001, Santo André 09210-580, Brazil
Mônica Ghislaine Oliveira Alves
School of Dentistry, Universidade Mogi das Cruzes, Mogi das Cruzes 08780-911, Brazil
Maria Anita Mendes
Dempster MS Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic School, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 05508-040, Brazil
Meriellen Dias
Dempster MS Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic School, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 05508-040, Brazil
Levy Anderson César Alves
Dempster MS Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic School, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 05508-040, Brazil
Janete Dias Almeida
Department of Biosciences and Diagnosis, Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (Unesp), São José dos Campos 12245-000, Brazil
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) represents 90% of oral malignant neoplasms. The search for specific biomarkers for OSCC is a very active field of research contributing to establishing early diagnostic methods and unraveling underlying pathogenic mechanisms. In this work we investigated the salivary metabolites and the metabolic pathways of OSCC aiming find possible biomarkers. Salivary metabolites samples from 27 OSCC patients and 41 control individuals were compared through a gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC-MS) technique. Our results allowed identification of pathways of the malate-aspartate shuttle, the beta-alanine metabolism, and the Warburg effect. The possible salivary biomarkers were identified using the area under receiver-operating curve (AUC) criterion. Twenty-four metabolites were identified with AUC > 0.8. Using the threshold of AUC = 0.9 we find malic acid, maltose, protocatechuic acid, lactose, 2-ketoadipic, and catechol metabolites expressed. We notice that this is the first report of salivary metabolome in South American oral cancer patients, to the best of our knowledge. Our findings regarding these metabolic changes are important in discovering salivary biomarkers of OSCC patients. However, additional work needs to be performed considering larger populations to validate our results.
