Abstract B25: Emerging role of heterogeneous ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) as early predictive marker and prognosticator for head and neck oral squamous cell carcinoma

• Published in: Molecular cancer therapeutics 2011-11, Vol.10 (11_Supplement), p.B25-B25
• Main Authors: Tripathi, Satyendra C., Kumar, Manish, Kaur, Jatinder, Chauhan, Shyam S., Shukla, Nootan K., Thakkar, Alok, Duggal, Ritu, Gupta, Siddhartha D., Ralhan, Ranju, Siu, KW Michael
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1535-7163; 1538-8514
• DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-11-B25

Introduction: Recently using iTRAQ-tagging and multidimensional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), we identified a panel of proteins differentially expressed in head and neck/oral squamous cell carcinoma (HNOSCC) as compared to the non-malignant tissues. Heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNPK) and Heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein D (hnRNPD) are among few of the proteins identified in this panel. These are nuclear protein belonging to the RNA binding protein family. Here, we report the verification of these proteins in an independent set of clinical samples by immunohistochemistry, and investigate their potential as a prognostic biomarker for HNOSCC. The present study also explores their clinical relevance and potential as a biomarker in identification of oral lesions in early stages of malignancy. Experimental Design: Two hundered HNOSCCs, 100 leukoplakias and 100 non-malignant archived tissues were retrieved from the research tissue bank to determine the expression of hnRNPK using immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC data were subjected to statistical analyses using the SPSS 15.0 software (Chicago). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity as a biomarker. The expression in oral lesions was further validated by immunoblotting and RT-PCR analyses in the same tissue and serum samples as used for IHC. Results: hnRNPK and hnRNPD expression was found to be significantly increased from normal mucosa to leukoplakia with or without dysplasia to HNOSCC (ptrend