Wine Consumption and Oral Cavity Cancer: Friend or Foe, Two Faces of Janus

XRCC3 and NBS1 gene polymorphisms modulate the risk of pre-oral cancer and oral cancer in the North Indian population

BACKGROUND

Oral cancer is alarming disease in the developing countries like India. DNA repair capacity may affect by genetic polymorphisms in DNA repair genes and thus may cause to cancer. XRCC3 involves in homologous recombination repair pathway and repair DNA damage and crosslinks while, NBS1 participate in repair of double strand DNA break and starts the cell-cycle checkpoint signaling.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This study was to conducted to find the association of XRCC3, NBS1 polymorphisms with oral disease.

RESULTS

TT genotype of XRCC3 was associated with high risk of precancerous lesions and oral cancerous lesions (P value=0.0001, OR=9.68, 95% CI=2.82-33.21; and P value=0.0001, OR=13.10, 95% CI=3.38-50.73 respectively). We did not observe any interactions of XRCC3 polymorphism with demographic parameters in influencing the risk of oral diseases. Variant allele genotypes (CG, GG) of NBS1 (C>G) polymorphism showed protective association with Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF), lichen planus as well as oral cancer (OR=0.31, OR=0.01; OR=0.39, OR=0.03; OR=0.43, OR=0.31 respectively). Particularly, tobacco chewer with CG & GG genotypes were at decrease risk of oral diseases (P value=0.02, OR=0.32, 95% CI=0.12-0.80). Compared to CC/CC combined genotype CG/CC, CG/CT, GG/CC and CG/CT genotypes decreased the risk of oral disease (OR=0.05, 0.47, 0.26 & 0.14 respectively).

CONCLUSION

This study concludes that SNP in XRCC3, NBS1 affects susceptibility to oral disease.

Resveratrol and Wine: An Overview of Thirty Years in the Digital News

BACKGROUND

Resveratrol's health benefits have received wide media coverage. Since resveratrol is usually associated with wine, informative texts about it should be prepared very carefully, since inaccurate website content could easily change people's wine consumption behavior. This study aimed to assess the quality of informative texts related to resveratrol on science journalism websites.

METHODS

We analyzed 125 resveratrol posts on Science Daily, WebMD, and EurekAlert! published between 1990 and 2020.

RESULTS

A higher number of posts was published in the years in which the number of people looking for information on the internet also increased. The increase can also be related to David Sinclair's notoriety, a fact that we called the "Sinclair effect". Most of the posts are replications of universities' press releases, mainly reporting resveratrol's health benefits, which resulted from preclinical studies and cannot be translated to humans. Most of them mention wine in the text and some in the title.

CONCLUSIONS

Wine is usually mentioned in headline resveratrol news, which could potentially influence wine consumption behavior. Scientists must intensify their efforts to communicate with the public to increase people's health literacy. Online news portals should have science journalists skilled in exploring scientific data and their translation into a simple and accurate language.

The World of Oral Cancer and Its Risk Factors Viewed from the Aspect of MicroRNA Expression Patterns

Oral cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with a reported 5-year survival rate of around 50% after treatment. Epigenetic modifications are considered to have a key role in oral carcinogenesis due to histone modifications, aberrant DNA methylation, and altered expression of miRNAs. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that have a key role in cancer development by regulating signaling pathways involved in carcinogenesis. MiRNA deregulation identified in oral cancer has led to the idea of using them as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis, and the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In recent years, a key role has been observed for risk factors in preventing and treating this malignancy. The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent knowledge about the altered mechanisms of oral cancer due to risk factors and the role of miRNAs in these mechanisms.

Anticancer activity of Vicenin-2 against 7,12 dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced buccal pouch carcinoma in hamsters

Buccal mucosa carcinoma is a significant cause of death in developing nations. Vicenin-2 is a significant bioactive compound found in Ocimum sanctum Linn or Tulsi that possesses several pharmacologic properties. Our focus is to understand the possible impact of Vicenin-2 on 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced oral carcinogenesis in hamsters. Buccal carcinoma was induced by treatment with carcinogenic DMBA, three times a week for 14 weeks. We determined 100% tumor incidence, abnormal tumor volume, inclined tumor burden, and deduced body weight in DMBA-induced oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) hamsters. The upregulation of cytokine levels (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-α]) was observed in DMBA-induced OSCC hamsters. Moreover, dysplastic, hyperplastic, and squamous cell carcinoma was identified in the DMBA-induced OSCC hamsters. The diminished activities of lipid peroxidation and enzymatic/nonenzymatic antioxidants were observed in DMBA-induced hamsters. Furthermore, the high expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), Cyclin-D1, and Bcl-2, and attenuated Bax expression were observed in DMBA-induced hamsters. Our study results explored that Vicenin-2 (30 mg/kg) treated with DMBA-brushed hamsters averted tumor incidence, improved the antioxidant status, and inhibited lipid peroxidation. Moreover, Vicenin-2 inhibited the immunohistochemical expression of PCNA, Cyclin-D1, and Bcl-2, and significantly restored apoptotic Bax levels. The Vicenin-2 treatment prevents the lesion formation in the oral epithelium of the DMBA-induced hamsters. The Vicenin-2 treatment potentially halts the proinflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) production in OSCC hamsters. Thus, we proved that Vicenin-2 prevents DMBA-induced buccal carcinogenesis in hamsters via improving antioxidants by modulating apoptotic and cytokines signaling pathways.

Therapeutic applications of herbal/synthetic/bio-drug in oral cancer: An update

Oral cancer, as one of the most prevalent and invasive cancers that invade local tissue, can cause metastasis, and have high mortality. In 2018, around 355,000 worldwide oral cancers occurred and resulted in 177,000 deaths. Estimates for the year 2020 include about 53,260 new cases added to previous year's cases, and the estimated death toll from this cancer in 2020 is about 10,750 deaths more than previous years. Despite recent advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, unfortunately, 50% of people with cancer cannot be cured. Of course, it should be remembered that the type of treatment used greatly influences patient recovery. There are not many choices when it comes to treating oral cancer. Research efforts focusing on the discovery and evolution of innovative therapeutic approaches for oral cancer are essential. Such traditional methods of treating this type of cancer like surgery and chemotherapy, have evolved dramatically during the past thirty to forty years, but they continue to cause panic among patients due to their side effects. Therefore, it is necessary to study and use drugs that are less risky for the patient as well as to provide solutions to reduce chemotherapy-induced adverse events that prevent many therapeutic risks. As mentioned above, this study examines low-risk therapies such as herbal remedies, biological drugs, and synthetic drugs in the hope that they will be useful to physicians, researchers, and scientists around the world.