Genomic Variants and Computational Modelling in Oral Cancer

Abstract

Oral cancer is a major public health concern in India. The global annual incidence of newlineoral cancer is 354,864 new cases, and India contributes 119,998 new cases annually, newlineaccounting 33.81% of the annual global oral cancer burden. The high-risk factors associated newlinewith oral cancer include tobacco, areca nut, alcohol, and high-risk Human Papilloma Virus newlineprimarily types 16/18. However, although tobacco habits are common in India, and oral lesions newlineare common, only 5 - 10 % of individuals with high-risk factors and oral lesions develop oral newlinecancer. Thus, the genomic constitution of an individual comprising genomic variants, are newlinecritical in oral cancer susceptibility. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) constitute 90% newlineof the genomic variants and have been associated with predisposition to several cancers as also newlineto oral cancer. SNPs have been associated with increased or decreased oral cancer risk. The newlinetreatment modalities of oral cancer include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and newlinetargeted therapy. Despite several advances in treatment, the 5-year survival rate of oral cancer newlinepatients in the Indian patients is about 40%, and a majority of patients have a poor prognosis. newlineThus it is mandatory to develop novel therapeutic approaches. In the current project, we have newlinefocused on three aspects, genomic variants as predictive markers in oral cancer, identification newlineof small drug-like molecules against mutated H-Ras and in vitro cytotoxicity assessment, and newlinemolecular dynamics simulation of p53 mutations associated with oral cancer to identify novel newlineanti-cancer agents using virtual screening approach. Thus, the project studies are divided into three sections with a focus on each aspect mentioned. newline