PROTEIN EXPRESSION IN SALIVA SAMPLES FROM PATIENTS WITH ORAL MALIGNANT LESIONS

Objective To identify proteins expressed in saliva from patients diagnosed with oral cancer (OC) using high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet diode array detection (HPLC-UV-DAD-Fluor). Study Design Saliva samples were collected from 3 healthy donors (controls) and 7 patients with OC. After collecting the samples, were stored at -80°C for posterior analysis. Samples from both groups were prepared and injected into the high performance liquid chromatography coulpled to UV-DAD and fluorescence system, which had acetonitrile and trifluoroacetic acid as mobile phase solvents in gradient mode. Results Seven patients had oral squamous cell carcinoma and 1 had myoepithelial carcinoma. The patients presented single and ulcerated lesions and absence of metastasis. Most of them were men (62.5%) with average age of 64.5 years old. Corresponding peaks were detected in control and patients' samples into the time interval 0 to 2.5 minutes of the chromatogram. Interval 2.5 to 5 minutes presented peaks only in patients' samples and 5 to 7.5 minutes displayed divergent and higher intensity peaks in patients' saliva samples. Conclusions (1) HPLC-UV-DAD-Fluor can be a useful method to screen protein expression in saliva; (2) The HPLC-UV-DAD-Fluor analysis showed different protein expression in saliva from controls and from patients suggesting that these proteins may possibly be important candidates for biomarkers to diagnose early OC through saliva.