The influence of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha gene polymorphism on oxidative stress in patients with oral precancerous lesions and oral cancer

Interaction of tobacco chewing and smoking habit with interleukin 6 promoter polymorphism in oral precancerous lesions and oral cancer

OBJECTIVE

Our study aims to determine the influence of smoking or tobacco chewing and the association of Interleukin 6 (IL-6) polymorphism, where G is substituted by A at the position - 596 (IL-6 - 596 G/A) and substitution of G by cytosine (C) at position - 572 (IL-6 - 572 G/C) on the susceptibility of precancerous oral lesions and oral cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The participants consisted of 250 subjects among which 75 were suffering from oral cancer, 75 subjects with precancerous oral lesions and 100 were healthy controls. Single-nucleotide polymorphism study (SNP) was done by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).

RESULTS

IL-6 - 596 G/A SNP revealed genotypes, GG, and GA in subjects with precancerous oral lesions and oral cancer, and AA genotype was not found in any subject. IL-6 - 596 G/A was strongly associated with oral precancerous lesions but not with oral cancer. The present study reports that smokers carrying GA for IL-6 - 596 G/A were at several folds higher risk of developing oral precancerous lesions. Smokers with GC and CC for IL-6 - 572 G/C were at higher risk of developing oral precancerous lesions. No significant interaction was observed between these habits and IL-6 - 596 G/A and IL-6 - 572 G/C SNP with oral cancer.

CONCLUSION

The interaction of variant A allele of IL-6 - 596 G/A and C allele of IL-6 - 572 G/C polymorphism with smoking and increases the risk of oral precancerous lesions. Tobacco chewing was not related with IL-6 - 596 G/A or IL-6 - 572 G/C in oral precancerous lesions or oral cancer.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The study will help to determine the susceptibility of individuals with smoking or chewing habits to the development of oral precancerous lesion and oral cancer by monitoring the IL-6 SNPs which can be used as a biomarker for risk determination.

A highly responsive, sensitive NIR fluorescent probe for imaging of superoxide anion in mitochondria of oral cancer cells

Superoxide anion (O₂^•-) is an important biomarker for reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated through physiological and pathological processes. However, due to the short half-life of O₂^•- and high autofluorescence of cell tissues, in situ real-time tracking and monitoring of endogenous O₂^•- can be difficult. In this paper, a fluorescent probe IFP-O₂ was developed to detect endogenous O₂^•- in cells. The probe could instantaneously react with O₂^•- to produce fluorescence off-on effect; its detection limit was as low as 10 nM. Cell experiments also showed that the probe had low toxicity and mitochondrial targeting ability. The article presents, for the first time, a probe that can be employed to measure endogenous O₂^•- in oral cancer Cal-27 cells and is a promising tool for monitoring and evaluating apoptosis.