Metabolomic Profiling of an Indian Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Subset

Abstract

Oral cancer (OC) is the sixth most common global malignancy and blazing dilemma all over India. Tobacco and alcohol consumption are the well-established risk factors for the onset of oral cancer. Gujarat is considered to be the high-risk region for oral cancer as it is the tobacco growing belt. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have shown a strong correlation with clinicopathological characteristics (CPC) of OC patients. The present study aims to investigate VOCs as potential biomarkers for developing OSCC. Metabolomic profile of 20 OSCC patients (n=20), 10 Healthy individuals (n=10) and 9 Tobacco consumers (n=9) were analysed using Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares structure-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) model has been assembled to compare the metabolomic profile of each group, where highly expressed metabolites were identified for different groups. We observed ten VOCs from oral cancer patients, where propionic acid is found as potential biomarkers end up with vitamin K and propionate metabolism. One-way ANOVA was performed to compare the mean difference between each group and the level of nine metabolites differed significantly in controls vs. oral cancer patients. The present study contributes to the design protocol for metabolomics-based biomarker discovery. Future research requires a more polishing touch to develop new vistas for the better prognosis of cancer patients.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Metabolomics
• GC-MS
• OSCC
• Biomarker
• India
• Tobacco