Assessing the Diagnostic Accuracy of Salivary Biomarkers in Detecting Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Attempts should be made to identify the molecule-based biomarkers, which give indication about the progression of precancer and malignancy of the oral area.

To evaluate the reliability of methylation of genes of saliva like P16, MGMT, and DAP-K as biomarkers for diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

This study included 30 cases of histopathologically proven cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma. This study was conducted to detect demethylation of genes P16, MGMT, and DAP-K in saliva in these patients. Approximately, 1 mL of saliva was collected from each individual. Bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) was done with bisulfite conversion-specific primers produced by MethPrimer. The BSP compounds will be quantified on a one percent agarose gel. A fraction of the products obtained in BSP were then analyzed with the help of qMSP.

The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of methylation of genes P16, MGMT, and DAP-K as biomarkers of oral carcinoma were statistically significant. In our research, there were some very important useful findings regarding the possibility of the use of deoxyribonucleic acid methylation as a potential biomarker for the progression of premalignancy and malignancy of oral cavity, which need to be further followed up.

Salivary biomarkers like P16, MGMT, and DAP-K can be used in the diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.