Effect of Gum Arabic-Encapsulated Gold Nanoparticles on MicroRNA Expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Line In Vitro Study

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) accounts for the deaths of tens of thousands of people worldwide each year. In early reports, it represents the sixth most frequent solid cancer around the world. In 2020, the incidence of lip and OSCC was 1,319 new cases in Egypt with mortality rate of 544 cases. The golden treatment protocol for OSCC patients is surgical resection with radiation and/or chemotherapy as adjuvant therapy. The complications and effects of surgical intervention are numerous such as high level of morbidity and impacts on mastication and speech. Thus, more effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies with less complications are still needed urgently to combat this deadly disease. One of the tumor microenvironment resistance factors that lead to chemotherapy failure is intratumoral hypoxia. HIF-1α is the main protein in the hypoxia pathway that influences cell survival and angiogenesis. Hypoxia/HIF-1α system is a potential strategic target in cancer therapeutics. The expression of hypoxia regulating miRNAs (hypoxamiRs; miR-210 and miR-21), regulators of HIF-1α, is high in OSCC. One of the promising modalities in cancer treatment is gum Arabic-encapsulated gold nanoparticles (GA-AuNPs) that have been recently under deep research. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate and assess the effect of GA-AuNPs on OSCC cell line (CAL-27) and its influence on the miRNA level as well as the targeted gene and protein levels.