Evaluation of Sialic Acid, Uric Acid, Total Protein and Amylase Activity in Biofluids of Oscc Patients

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most prevalent cancers in developing countries like India. This high incidence and mortality rates result from unhealthy lifestyle, lack of awareness and late detection. Cancer progression has evolved to evade checkpoints governing normal functioning of a cell. This gives rise to biochemical signatures that can be indicators of tumour presence and progression. Exploring such variations in easily accessible biofluids for large scale screening and diagnostics is required. Methods: Fasting saliva, serum and urine samples from 25 OSCC patients and 50 healthy volunteers were collected and their clinico-pathological details noted. Sialic acid (Ehrlich method), total protein (Biuret method), uric acid (Uricase method) and amylase activity (Kinetic method) were measured in all samples. Shapiro–Wilk test, Mann-Whitney U test, Receiver Operator Characteristic curve analysis and Principle Component Analysis were used to analyze data. Results: The following changes were observed as compared to controls (i) Sialic acid in all three biofluids and total protein in saliva and urine were significantly higher (ii) Amylase activity was significantly lesser in serum and urine whereas uric acid was higher only in serum. ROC analyses and PCA of parameters showed that combination of sialic acid with total protein in saliva and urine, and sialic acid with uric acid in serum exhibited better differentiation between groups as compared to individual parameters. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the benefits of analysing multiple biochemical indicators over individual ones in non-invasive biofluids for improved differentiation of OSCC patients from healthy controls