Abstract:
Aim: Oral cancer is a major health problem in India associated with significant
morbidity and mortality. Due to the absence of truly specific symptoms, the early
diagnosis of oral cancer is quite challenging. Aberrant glycosylation of cell surface
glycoconjugates is an important feature of malignant changes. Abnormal glycosylation
in cancer leads to formation of altered glycoconjugates such as Thomsen – Friedenreich
(TF) antigen. In this study we have analyzed saliva for various constituents and used a
novel, TF antigen binding fungal lectin (SRL) from Sclerotium rolfsii, to detect
glycosylation changes in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and
Methods: Unstimulated whole 30 saliva samples each collected from OSCC patients
and normal healthy individuals and were analyzed for biochemical constituents and
subjected to lectin precipitation assay using SRL. The results were compared between
healthy and OSCC subjects. Results: Our results showed that levels of salivary
constituents like proteins, sugars, hexosamines and sialic acids were significantly high
in OSCC patients compared to healthy controls. Lectin precipitation assay with SRL
revealed the presence of altered mucin-type glycoproteins in saliva of OSCC patients in
significantly higher quantity as compared to healthy individuals. Conclusion: A non
invasive method like salivary analysis can be developed for the early diagnosis of OSCC
and SRL can be developed as a probe to detect and quantify salivary TF antigen in
OSCC.
