Quantification of TAZ in Tobacco Associated Potentially Malignant Disorders and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

INTRODUCTION: Transcriptional coactivator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) /WWTR 1is a key downstream effector of Hippo signaling pathway involved in mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, organ development and also in tumorigenesis. Deregulation of TAZ has been linked to initiation and progression of various cancers. Over expression of TAZ is seen in different human cancers such as oral squamous cell carcinoma, cervical cancer, breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of TAZ in normal, smokers without lesion, leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma ( OSCC) and its correlation within these groups in order to determine its diagnostic value. METHODS: A total of 40 cases had constituted the study group. Salivary TAZ levels were assessed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the normal controls, clinically and cytologically confirmed subjects consisting of smokers without lesion and those with leukoplakia and histopathologically confirmed subjects of oral squamous cell carcinoma. RESULTS: The comparative mean salivary TAZ expression among the study groups showed a gradual rise between the study groups which was highly significant at 0 .004. TAZ protein levels in the saliva samples of group 4 – subjects with oral squamous cell carcinoma were higher than those of subjects in the group 1 - normal control, group 2 - smokers without lesion, group 3 - subjects with leukoplakia. TAZ expression in OSCC was significantly higher when compared with the normal control with a ‘p’ value 0.003 CONCLUSION: Saliva can be a rich resource of diagnostic protein which can be obtained easily and non- invasively. The present study is an attempt to estimate the TAZ protein in saliva and evaluate its efficacy to be used in the early diagnosis of oral potentially malignant disorders and i ts progression to malignancy. The results of the study suggest that TAZ might play a critical role in tumorigenesis of OSCC and become a novel salivary diagnostic biomarker