Expression pattern and clinical significance of beta 2-adrenergic receptor in oral squamous cell carcinoma: an emerging prognostic indicator and future therapeutic target.

PURPOSE: Beta 2-Adrenergic Receptor (ß2-AR) is significantly overexpressed in various types of malignancies, which is associated with the worst prognosis. However, the role of ß2-AR in oral cancer is not well identified. The present study aimed at investigating the ß2-AR gene expression and its significance in relation with the clinicopathological features and overall survival of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry, western blot and quantitative real-time PCR techniques were used to analyze ß2-AR protein and mRNA levels in a total of 65 histopathologically confirmed OSCC tissues (case group) and 65 normal tissues (control group) from the oral cavity. RESULTS: Out of the total of 65 OSCC tissues, 41 tissues (63.1%) exhibited  high expression  for ß2-AR protein. Percent positivity and relative density (mean ± SD) of protein were higher in the case group as compared to the control group (positivity 40.31 ± 3.01 vs. 20.46 ± 1.93, p < 0.001; density 2.77 ± 1.17 vs. 1.28 ± 0.37, p < 0.001). In addition, ß2-AR mRNA level was also upregulated in patients compared to the controls (2.36 ± 1.30 vs. 1.09 ± 0.42, p < 0.001) and showed a positive correlation with immunostaining of protein in OSCC (r = 0.48, p = 0.011). High ß2-AR protein expression was significantly associated with multiple risk habits (p = 0.045), histological differentiation (p = 0.013), clinical TNM stages (p = 0.014), and poor survival (p = 0.006) of patients. In the Cox proportional hazards model, ß2-AR was identified as a prognostic biomarker of OSCC (p = 0.047). CONCLUSION: ß2-AR protein level is identified as an independent significant prognostic factor in patients with oral carcinoma.

A systematic review on genetic diversity of var gene DBL1α domain from different geographical regions in Plasmodium falciparum isolates.

Background The major variant surface antigen (VSA) in Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) encoded by var gene family has an important role in cytoadhesion/sequestration and rosetting by adhesion of uninfected erythrocytes to infected erythrocytes leading to disease severity. DBL1α domain in the PfEMP-1, protein is crucial in the cytoadhesion phenomena in P. falciparum infections and this review aims to analyse the genetic diversity of DBL1α domain sequences in PfEMP-1 from different geographical regions globally. Methods All available DBL1α sequence data was reviewed by using the electronic database PubMed, ResearchGate, Google, Google scholar, MEDLINE with the following Keywords-Plasmodium falciparum", "var gene", "DBL1α", "field isolate", "diversity", "polymorphism", "Africa", "America", "Asia" and "Caribbean" from different geographical regions across the world. Results A total of 240 studies were identified initially but only 20 studies qualified for this systematic review. The overall ratio of distinct sequences DBL1α domain was 24.62/1167 the highest in African region (33.59/766 isolates) and lowest in South America (5.6/215 isolates). In the 18 included studies, the presence of distinct DBL1α sequences was the highest in Oceania 55.32% (1186/2144) followed by Africa (38.43%), Asia (22.45%) and South America (16.48%), though the sample size in Oceania was comparatively smaller to that of Africa and South America. Conclusion This review highlights the ratio and percentage of distinct sequences of DBL1α domain of var gene in different geographical regions giving an idea of the existing diversity prevalent in this potential vaccine target gene which may contribute to designing the preventive measures towards disease severity.