Moghaddam Saghi Jani Kargar, Roushandeh Amaneh Mohammadi, Roudkenar Mehryar Habibi, Nemati Shadman, Najafi-Ghalehlou Nima, Pakzad Toofan, Hamidi Masoud
Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
Burn and Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Velayat Hospital, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2022 Jul 13;27(3):e461-e470. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1749371. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Finding biomarkers for highly lethal cancers is a priority. The current study was designed to understand the clinical significance of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) expression as the biomarkers, and evaluate their correlation with each other, in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in the province of Guilan, North of Iran. Gene expression was evaluated in 25 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks from cases of confirmed NPC and 20 FFPE samples of non-NPC by quantifying messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein levels, using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods, respectively. Furthermore, the correlations among the protein levels of different genes, along with the patients' demographic characteristics were assessed. Our findings on mRNA and protein levels demonstrated that the expression of the LMP1 gene in the NPC group was significantly elevated compared with that of the non-NPC group. In addition, the protein levels in the NPC group indicated a positive and significant correlation between LMP1 and VEGF expression. It was noted that both protein and mRNA levels showed no significant differences in the expression of TNF-α and VEGF genes between the NPC and control groups. Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between the expression of these proteins and the demographic characteristics of NPC patients. Overall, a significant increase in LMP1 expression was observed in NPC patients, which may serve as a diagnostic biomarker for NPC. Also, LMP1 might be involved in NPC progression by inducing VEGF gene expression.
寻找高致死性癌症的生物标志物是当务之急。本研究旨在了解血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）、潜伏膜蛋白1（LMP1）和肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）表达作为生物标志物在伊朗北部吉兰省鼻咽癌（NPC）中的临床意义，并评估它们之间的相互关系。通过分别使用实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）和免疫组织化学（IHC）方法，对确诊NPC病例的25个福尔马林固定石蜡包埋（FFPE）样本块和20个非NPC的FFPE样本进行信使核糖核酸（mRNA）和蛋白质水平定量，评估基因表达。此外，还评估了不同基因蛋白质水平之间的相关性以及患者的人口统计学特征。我们关于mRNA和蛋白质水平的研究结果表明，NPC组中LMP1基因的表达与非NPC组相比显著升高。此外，NPC组中的蛋白质水平表明LMP1与VEGF表达之间存在正相关且显著相关。值得注意的是，NPC组和对照组之间TNF-α和VEGF基因的表达在蛋白质和mRNA水平上均无显著差异。此外，这些蛋白质的表达与NPC患者的人口统计学特征之间没有显著关系。总体而言，在NPC患者中观察到LMP1表达显著增加，这可能作为NPC的诊断生物标志物。此外，LMP1可能通过诱导VEGF基因表达参与NPC的进展。
