NONINVASIVE LIQUID BIOPSY OF TEAR FLUIDS MAY REFLECT ORAL CANCER INITIATION

• Published in: Oral surgery, oral medicine, oral pathology and oral radiology Vol. 137; no. 6; p. e292
• Main Authors: SANTOS, Erison Santana Dos, GRANATO, Daniela Campos, CARNIELLI, Carolina Moretto, PRADO-RIBEIRO, Ana Carolina, SANTOS-SILVA, Alan Roger, LOPES, Marcio Ajudarte, PAES LEME, Adriana Franco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.06.2024
• ISSN: 2212-4403; 2212-4411
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oooo.2023.12.676

We aimed to find biomarkers of progression from oral leukoplakias (OL) to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) using the noninvasive liquid biopsy of tear fluids. Unstimulated tears from patients with OL (N=10), proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) (N=10), OSCC (n=14), and control patients (N=10) were collected and submitted to discovery-based proteomics by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The data were analyzed by the software MaxQuant (proteomics), Byonics (N-glycoproteomics), and PEAKS database (post-translational modifications) (ANOVA following the Tukey test assuming p<0.05). Proteomic data were integrated with analysis of public databases to validate the findings. We identified a panel of proteins with differential abundance among the groups that present the potential capacity to predict malignant transformation. Many proteins are correlated with clinicopathological features, such as epithelial dysplasia, lymph node metastasis, and clinical stages of the disease. In addition, using public databases we demonstrated that some proteins identified in our panel of biomarkers are druggable and may be useful as therapeutic targets. Liquid biopsy from tear fluids may be a powerful noninvasive tool to provide insights into the biology of OSCC. Financial Support: FAPESP 22/04490-1.