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Background Treating cancer is challenging for both the patient and the physician. This may be explained by the fact that treatment regimens rely on either chemotherapy alone or a combination with radiotherapy. Both modalities have damaging side effects that add to the patient suffer. This inconvenience from the patient part has led scientists to search for discovering new era in cancer management. Plant extracts have proved to be beneficial in many medical fields. Not surprisingly, tumor prevention and therapy is one of these bright fields. Rosmarinus Officinalis has attracted many researchers due to its diverse pharmaceutical capabilities. New drug delivery systems must be set to overcome biomedical as well as biophysical barriers. Nanoformulation of therapeutic agents may help bypassing these burdens. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of rosemary extract (RE) loaded on chitosan nanoparticles as a cancer treatment modality. Synthesis of nanoparticles encapsulating rosemary extract was performed with subsequent characterization by electron microscopy. Assessment of their effect on OSCC cell line (Hep-2) regarding cell cytotoxicity and impact on cell cycle and apoptotic pathway as well as intracellular ROS quantification was performed. Results RE nanoparticles were found to be cytotoxic to Hep-2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. They induced apoptotic changes as well as cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. They enhanced ROS expression in cancer cells. Autophagosomes appeared in treated cells. Conclusion Finally, it could be concluded that RE nanoparticles may be a new candidate in the field of cancer management, mainly oral cancer.

Background Oral potentially malignant lesions (OPML) are suspicious lesions that may turn into malignancy according to the degree of dysplasia. Early diagnosis of these lesions allows their treatment before malignant transformation. Saliva is a liquid biopsy that can be obtained easily from the patient and assessed for biomarkers expression. Our study aimed to investigate the possibility of using salivary and serum TNF-α and Ki-67 in early detection of OPML. Patients with OPML were selected according to histopathological evaluation of the suspected lesions. The lesions were stained immunohistochemically by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and Ki-67. Saliva and blood samples were collected from the patients for detecting the expression of the markers by ELISA. Results The level of TNF-α and Ki-67 was higher in patients with OPML than healthy individuals regarding both saliva and serum. TNF-α was significantly higher in saliva than in serum unlike Ki-67 which was insignificantly higher in saliva than in serum. The OPML show negative expression of TNF-α in OPML immunohistochemically unlike Ki-67 which show intense positive expression in OPML immunohistochemically. Conclusions Saliva can be used as an early noninvasive biomarker detector depending on selecting the appropriate salivary biomarker. Salivary TNF-α can be used in early diagnosis of OPML.

Introduction: Salivary gland cancers impose a huge part in oral and maxillofacial pathologies. Mucoepidermoid (MEC) and adenoid cystic carcinomas (ACC) are salivary malignancies, where (MEC) being the most common cancer. CD44, is a family of transmembrane non-kinase cell surface glycoproteins, that was broadly used as a marker for cancer stem cells (CSCs) in various malignancies. CD44 was found to be overexpressed in various types of cells including cancer stem cells (CSCs) and it has been postulated that CD44 has a part in carcinogenesis. Natural killer (NK) cells are one of the components of the innate immune system, which express the phenotypic marker CD56 in the absence of CD3, and has a vital role in tumor-cell surveillance. This study aimed to assess the expression of CD44 and CD56 in different grades of mucoepidermoid carcinomas and different patterns of adenoid cystic carcinoma, and correlate between the expressions of the markers (CD44 and CD56) in different grades and patterns of the tumors. Material &Methods: Thirty-three paraffin embedded blocks of salivary gland tumors (18 mucoepidermoid carcinoma and 15 adenoid cystic carcinoma) were selected. Those tumorswere classified into four groups: intermediate grade (IG) MEC, high grade (HG) MEC, ACC (tub-crib) and ACC (solid) patterns.Immunohistochemical staining for CD44 and CD56 was performed. Data were analyzed using SPSS (24), the independent-T test and Anova to analyze the statistical significance. Results: for CD44, inMEC group, we found no significant difference between both grades for CD44 expression, however, the difference was found to be significant between both patterns of ACC. While for CD56, the difference was statistically significant between both grades of MEC, and both patterns of ACC. Conclusion:CD44 could be promising goal for cancer therapy, mostly for CD44 expressing cancers. NK cells have a crucial role in the anti-tumor immune mechanism. Moreover, more studies are significantly demanded to assess the promising role and function of CD56 in diagnosis and prognosis of salivary gland cancers, and the tumor-cell surveillance capacity of the NK cells.