Search

The global prevalence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been increasing. OSCC at the advanced stage tends to resist conventional treatment and causes local recurrence and distant metastasis, resulting in poor prognosis. Therefore, detecting this cancer at an early stage and performing early intervention are important. Promising biomarkers to detect OSCC have yet to be established; however, microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) serve a crucial role in OSCC tumorigenesis and may be potential biomarkers. In the present case report, the availability of salivary miRNAs as a therapeutic and prognostic marker for patients with OSCC was assessed. The patient was a 33-year-old woman who was diagnosed with advanced OSCC of the tongue, and their miRNA profile isolated from a saliva sample at each clinical course was evaluated. Microarray analysis of the salivary samples revealed changes in the levels of four miRNAs (hsa-miR-6798-5p, miR-6803-5p, miR-6805-5p and miR-6845-5p) in accordance with the clinical course. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical procedure decreased the levels, whereas the levels increased when the patient was diagnosed with lung metastasis. Furthermore, tongue and lung metastatic lesion specimens exhibited expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2, which is regulated by the four miRNAs. Accordingly, the present report proposed that salivary miRNAs could be a therapeutic and prognostic biomarker for OSCC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright: © 2024 Kimura et al.)

Background: The activity level of alkaline phosphatase, a zinc-requiring enzyme in the serum, is used to indicate zinc nutritional status; however, it does not correlate with serum zinc levels or subjective symptoms of taste disorder in many cases. Hence, this study focused on the total activity of alkaline phosphatase, a zinc-requiring enzyme. The total alkaline phosphatasa activity level in the saliva was measured before and after zinc supplementation, and the results were compared with serum zinc levels., Case Presentation: This study included patients with hypozincemia, specifically a patient with zinc-deficient taste disorder (patient 1: a 69-year-old Japanese woman) and a patient with glossodynia with zinc deficiency (patient 2: an 82-year-old Japanese woman). Saliva samples were collected, and blood tests were performed before and after zinc supplementation. Subjective symptoms and serum zinc levels were simultaneously evaluated. Zinc supplementation was performed using zinc acetate hydrate or Polaprezinc., Conclusions: Total alkaline phosphatase activity levels were found to be associated with serum zinc levels and subjective symptoms. A further study with a higher number of patients is necessary to confirm whether total alkaline phosphatase activity levels more accurately reflect the amounts of zinc in the body than serum zinc levels., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the difference in virulence of Candida albicans derived from oral candidiasis and non-oral candidiasis patients, and its genotype differences in Hokkaido to obtain a clue of a platform to develop new approaches for diagnosis and treatment., Design: C. albicans strains were collected from patients who visited the Hokkaido University Hospital Dental Center. Each strain was examined to i) identify the Candida albicans genotype by PCR, ii) measure the strain's extracellular secretory enzyme activity, iii) determine the strain's ability to induce the production of interleukin-8, and iv) determine the strain's ability to induce cell death., Results: Certain virulence-related protease activities and cytotoxicity were higher in strains derived from patients with oral candidiasis compared with strains derived from patients without oral candidiasis. This is the first report on genotypes and the virulence-related activities, such as some protease secretion, IL-8 induction and cytotoxicity of C. albicans in Hokkaido., Conclusions: The virulence-related activities of the fungal strain may influence the pathogenesis of oral candidiasis, such as production of secreted aspartyl protease and cytotoxicity. In addition, C. albicans genotype C may be important for pathogenicity in Hokkaido, because the ratio of genotype C was increased in strains derived from oral candidiasis patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)