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Updated: Apr 19, 2026
Author Spotlight: Unlocking the Mysteries of Oral Potential Malignancies
Published on: August 11, 2023
¹H NMR-derived serum metabolomics of leukoplakia and squamous cell carcinoma
Ashish Gupta1, Shalini Gupta2, Abbas Ali Mahdi3
1Department of Metabolomics, Centre of Biomedical Research, SGPGIMS Campus, Lucknow, India.
Background:
Oral cancer (OC) is the sixth commonest cancer worldwide with alarming mortality. If identified at an early stage, the survival rate would be improved.
Methods:
We appraised the feasibility of using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) based metabolomics in the identification of signature metabolites in serum from patients suffering with oral leukoplakia (OLK, n=100), oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC, n=100), and healthy control (HC, n=75). (1)H NMR derived data were processed by principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) to reveal discriminating metabolites among these groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve evaluation was also executed.
Results:
NMR-derived serum metabolomics reveals eight differentially expressed biomarkers. Among them four biomarkers (glutamine, propionate, acetone, and choline) were able to accurately (ROC; 0.97) segregate 93.5% of OC cases equated to HC with substantial sensitivity and specificity. Similarly, four biomarkers (glutamine, acetone, acetate, and choline) were able to precisely (ROC; 0.96) discriminate, 92.4% of OLK cases from OSCC with considerable sensitivity and specificity. (1)H NMR-based metabolic fingerprint obtained for oral cancer is remarkable, even for OLK stage.
Conclusion:
There is a systemic metabolic response to initial stage of cancer, which carries immense possibility for early appraisal.
