In this study, first time estimated the levels of p38 MAPK isoforms in the serum of HNSCC. It can be concluded that p38 MAPK isoforms can be a diagnostic and prognostic marker for HNSCC and p38δ as a therapeutic target.

No abstract

Demographic characteristics of study groups. The baseline data of both study groups have been provided in Table 1. We noticed higher frequency of male subjects in both groups in comparison to female subjects. Patients having tobacco consumption habit (62.5%) were more prevalent in the study cohort. Patients with oral cavity site, node involvement, later stages of tumor and MDSCC histopath were more. Estimation of HLA-G, IL-10 and IFN-γ protein level in the study population. By SPR. The standard curves obtained by plotting different concentration of purified proteins and respective RU values are in linear range (Fig. S1). One RU corresponds to immobilized protein concentration of 1 pg/mm2. The RU shows linear relation with concentration of protein which signifies sensitivity of the protein. The protein concentration of all serum samples were estimated using standard curve equation. The concentration of sHLA-G (8.25 ± 1.74 ng/µl), IL-10 (43.99 ± 11.13 ng/µl) and IFN-γ (20.04 ± 9.70 ng/µl) protein levels were higher in serum of HNSCC patients in comparison to controls (sHLA-G: 6.45 ± 1.31; IL-10:37.08 ± 8.55; IFN-γ:16.19 ± 6.60 ng/µl). The obtained range of protein concentration of serum sHLA-G, serum IL-10, and serum IFN-γ in HNSCC patients were 6.04-18 ng/µl, 22.59-75.04 ng/µl and 9.02-59.13 ng/µl, respectively. sHLA-G protein concentration was elevated (8.09 ± 1.79 ng/µl) in patient group which was observed to be declined in concentration levels after therapy (6.64 ± 1.33 ng/µl) which showed response to the therapy on the basis of this protein (Fig. 1). In case of IL-10, the protein concentration was reported 42.43 ± 11.30 ng/µl before therapy and dropped to 34.66 ± 8.33 ng/µl and IFN-γ protein concentration was found 17.45 ± 7.80 ng/µl at the time of diagnosis which declines to 13.62 ± 5.22 ng/µl after completion of therapy (Fig. 1a-c). Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were prepared to determine diagnostic performance of sHLA-G for HNSCC, where area under curve (AUC) and the cutoff value were 0.81 and ≥7.08 ng/µl with the sensitivity and specificity of 74.67 and 74.17, respectively (Fig. 2).

No abstract

No abstract