title: Deregulation of Beclin 1 in patients with tobacco-related oral squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: Autophagy is a physiologically regulated and evolutionary conserved process that plays a critical role in degradation of cytoplasmic proteins and other macromolecules within the lysosomes. Beclin-1, the mammalian orthologue of yeast Atg6, is an important mediator of autophagy that has been studied in many human cancers. However, the expression of Beclin-1 has not yet been investigated in oral cancer. We for the first time investigated the expression of Beclin-1 in serum and tissues and correlated it with the clinic-pathological features of oral cancer patients. m-RNA expression of Beclin-1 was evaluated in tumor and normal areas of surgical specimens from 10 oral cancer patients by real-time PCR. Approximately, 8-fold lower expression (p<0.001) of Beclin-1 mRNA was observed in tumor tissue as compared to the normal tissue. Serum levels of Beclin-1 were evaluated by SPR and ELISA. No significant difference was observed in serum Beclin-1 levels in patients as compared to healthy subjects, similarly no correlation was found between serum levels and clinic-pathological parameters such as stage, lymph node involvement and tumor size. Our results demonstrate that down-regulation of Beclin-1 may play an important role in the development and progression of oral cancer possibly by dysregulation of autophagy in tumor cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. kapoor.vaishali@gmail.com
authors.forename: Vaishali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.forename: Daizy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paliwal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baskar Singh
authors.forename: Bidhu Kalyan
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Mohanti
authors.forename: Satya Narayan
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D001343:Autophagy; D000071186:Beclin-1; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C491997:BECN1 protein, human; D000071186:Beclin-1; D008565:Membrane Proteins