title: ¹H NMR-derived serum metabolomics of leukoplakia and squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral cancer (OC) is the sixth commonest cancer worldwide with alarming mortality. If identified at an early stage, the survival rate would be improved.
  
  
  METHODS
  We appraised the feasibility of using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) based metabolomics in the identification of signature metabolites in serum from patients suffering with oral leukoplakia (OLK, n=100), oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC, n=100), and healthy control (HC, n=75). (1)H NMR derived data were processed by principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) to reveal discriminating metabolites among these groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve evaluation was also executed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NMR-derived serum metabolomics reveals eight differentially expressed biomarkers. Among them four biomarkers (glutamine, propionate, acetone, and choline) were able to accurately (ROC; 0.97) segregate 93.5% of OC cases equated to HC with substantial sensitivity and specificity. Similarly, four biomarkers (glutamine, acetone, acetate, and choline) were able to precisely (ROC; 0.96) discriminate, 92.4% of OLK cases from OSCC with considerable sensitivity and specificity. (1)H NMR-based metabolic fingerprint obtained for oral cancer is remarkable, even for OLK stage.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a systemic metabolic response to initial stage of cancer, which carries immense possibility for early appraisal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Metabolomics, Centre of Biomedical Research, SGPGIMS Campus, Lucknow, India. Electronic address: ashishg24@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: Shalini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: Abbas Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mahdi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007971:Leukoplakia / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D055432:Metabolomics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D011522:Protons
keywords: NMR-spectroscopy; OPLS-DA; Oral cancer; PCA; Serum-metabolomics