Objective Aberrant glycosylation, mainly sialylation and fucosylation, is recently considered as a major hallmark of cancer. Aberrant sialylation has long been associated with various neoplastic diseases. However, role of aberrant sialylation in oral cancer is still in its infancy. The present study aimed to examine mRNA expressions of α‐2, 3, α‐2, 6 sialyltransferase (ST) families and sialidase in 160 human oral cancer tissues. Methods mRNA expression of ST3GAL1, ST3GAL2, ST3GAL3, ST3GAL4, ST3GAL6, ST6GAL1, and neuraminidase 3 (NEU3) was analyzed by RT‐qPCR in 80 paired malignant and adjacent normal tissues from oral cancer patients. Results The results indicated significant (P ≤ .05) down‐regulation of various STs (ST3GAL1, ST3GAL2, ST3GAL3, ST3GAL4, ST3GAL6, and ST6GAL1) and sialidases (NEU3) in malignant tissues as compared to adjacent normal tissues. Higher mRNA levels of ST3GAL2 and ST3GAL3 were significantly associated with advanced stage of the disease, lymph node involvement, and perineural invasion, which denote their role in progression and metastasis of oral cancer. Present study also revealed altered sialylation patterns according to anatomical site of the disease and tobacco habit. Conclusion The study demonstrated significant role of elevated mRNA levels of ST3GAL2 and ST3GAL3 in disease progression and metastasis of oral carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: Cancer is a multi-factorial disease, with various intrinsic and environmental factors contributing to its occurrence. Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with the occurrence of many cancers. India severely suffers from 3 HPV-associated cancers (cervical cancer, oral cancer, and oropharyngeal cancer). Hence, the present study aimed to evaluate the HPV burden in these 3 cancers among patients from the western region of India.METHODS: DNA was isolated from samples from 400 cervical cancer, 127 oral cancer, and 75 oropharyngeal cancer patients. Polymerase chain reaction was performed using degenerate primers for HPV infection.RESULTS: Overall, HPV infection was observed in 87% of cervical cancer cases, 12.5% of oral cancer cases, and 26.7% of oropharyngeal cancer cases when analyzed with a cumulative detection method using the MY 09/11, GP 5+/6+, and CP I/II primer sets.CONCLUSIONS: A significant prevalence of HPV infection was detected in all 3 cancers using the degenerate primer sets. This finding implies that testing for HPV infection using multiple primer sets is crucial for determining its actual prevalence in various malignancies.

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Background: Cervical cancer is one of the leading malignancies in women of India with high mortality rate and no available targeted therapy. This is due to dearth in understanding of underlying mechanisms regulating cervical carcinogenesis and distinguished behavioral pattern of HPV-associated carcinomas. This study aims to understand association of HPV infection and cervical cancer with aberrant glycosylation, an enabling factor for other hallmarks of cancer. Materials and Methods: DNA and RNA were isolated from biopsy samples of 92 cervical cancer patients. HPV 16 and 18 infection was detected by endpoint Type-Specific PCR. RNA samples were processed for expression analysis of HPV 16-E6, HPV 16-E7 and HPV 16-E2 oncogenes. Analysis of the expression of glycosylation transcripts were performed using qPCR. Results: Correlation of HPV infection with transcript levels of ST3GAL3, ST6GAL1, FUT5 and FUT8 was observed. In HPV 16 and 18 positive patients, the transcript levels of ST3GAL3, ST6GAL1 and FUT5 were higher while FUT8 transcripts levels showed down-regulation. Conclusion: This data depicts hyper-glycosylation patterns associated with HPV infection. HPV-associated cancers showed down regulation of core fucosylation and up-regulation of ST3GAL3, ST6GAL1 and FUT5. The behavioral pattern for HPV-associated cancer could be due to its differential association with altered glycosylation.