Oral cancer is one of the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Effective biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis would be beneficial to reduce the mortality and ensure effective treatment of OSCC patients. C-Type Lectin Domain Family 3 Member B(CLEC3B) and its translatory protein, Tetranectin has been involved in tumor invasion and metastasis in various cancers, but its association with OSCC remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the prognostic importance of CLEC3B and Tetranectin in OSCC.

A case control study was conducted on saliva samples of 60 participants including 20 OSCC, 20 Postoperative OSCC and 20 healthy individuals, to determine the salivary expression of CLEC3B in OSCC. All samples were collected from Abbasi Shaheed hospital and ziauddin university hospital. Written informed consent was obtained before taking samples. mRNA levels were detected through RT-qPCR and Tetranectin levels were identified by ELISA.

CLEC3B is Significantly expressed in OSCC, postoperative patients and healthy individuals (p-value0.019). It is significantly downregulated in OSCC compared with controls (p-value 0.014) whereas no significance found in mRNA levels of OSCC and Postoperative OSCC cases. Protein expression is significantly downregulated in OSCC compared with postoperative OSCC and with controls (P < 0.01).  These findings suggest that CLEC3B and Tetranectin could serve as a potentially prognostic biomarker for OSCC.

KEY WORDS

Prognostic marker, oral squamous cell carcinoma, gene expression