Evaluation of the levels of salivary paxillin in oral potentially malignant disorders and malignant lesions.

BACKGROUND: The scientific community has been particularly interested in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) because of the cancer's extremely high incidence and fatality rates worldwide. It has been proposed that paxillin is involved in certain malignancies as an oncogene. Additionally, several investigations have assessed paxillin expression and investigated its function in developing distinct human carcinomas, including squamous cell carcinoma. Furthermore, it was discovered that there is a strong link between paxillin levels and cancer progression and spread. OBJECTIVE: This investigation was carried out to analyze and compare the salivary paxillin levels between oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs), OSCC and the healthy controls to assess its potential role as a biomarker of oral cancer aiming for early diagnosis and better prognosis of OSCC. METHODS: Forty-five patients, ranging in age from thirty to seventy-five, were divided into three groups: fifteen patients with OPMDs, fifteen patients with OSCC, and fifteen controls. Paxillin was identified in saliva samples by using an ELISA kit. RESULTS: Patients with OSCC and OPMDs have considerably greater salivary Paxillin levels than the healthy control group. The receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis was used in our study to distinguish patients with OPMDs from those with OSCC. The ROC curve constructed with the OPMDs group as the positives had lower sensitivity and area under the curve (AUC) values [100% and 1] than the ROC curve with the malignant group as the positives [93.3% and 0.997], respectively. Furthermore, ROC analysis performed between OPMDs group and the malignant group showed a specificity of 73.3% and a cut-off value ≥ 7.9 . CONCLUSION: Paxillin can be considered a reliable biomarker for identifying and comparing OPMDs and OSCC cancerous changes. GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT06154551- 4/12/2023.

Clinical and biochemical assessment of the effect of topical use of coenzyme Q10 versus topical corticosteroid in management of symptomatic oral lichen planus: randomized controlled clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic mucocutaneous immunologically mediated condition that has a great adverse effect on oral functions. Corticosteroids are still the first drugs of choice used in the treatment of OLP; however, they have extensive medical side effects. The present study was carried out to assess the clinical therapeutic effect of the topical use of coenzyme Q10 (coQ10 or ubiquinol) versus topical corticosteroids in the management of symptomatic OLP and to determine whether the effect, if any, was due to the powerful antioxidant activity of coQ10. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We performed a randomized, double blinded controlled trial at the Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University, Egypt. The study was conducted on 34 patients suffering from symptomatic OLP. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: intervention group (I),who received topical CoQ10 in the form of mucoadhesive tablets (40% CoQ10) 3 times daily for one month and control group (II),who received topical corticosteroid (kenacort in Orabase: triamcinolone acetonide 0.1% 5-g adhesive paste - dermapharm), 4 times daily for one month. Patients were evaluated at one-week intervals using the clinical parameters (score) of pain (VAS) and lesion size. Additionally, salivary levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected in both groups before and after treatment using ELISA. All recorded data were analysed using independent t test, ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc test for lesion size and salivary level of MDA data and Mann-Whitney U test and Friedman test for VAS data. RESULTS: Both groups showed a significant reduction in pain and the size of the lesions (p ≤ 0.05) with no statistically significant difference between them (p > 0.05), and this clinical improvement was associated with a reduction in the salivary levels of MDA in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The topical use of CoQ10 mucoadhesive tablets was as effective as the topical use of triamcinolone acetonide, and its clinical effect was associated with a reduction in the salivary level of MDA. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was registered at www. CLINICALTRIAL: gov (NCT04091698) and registration date: 17/9/2019.