Human Cytomegalovirus in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Southeast of Iran

Shirin Saravani; Hamideh Kadeh; Ebrahim Miri-Moghaddam; Ali Zekri; Nima Sanadgol; Aliye Gholami

doi:10.5812/jjm.21838

Human Cytomegalovirus in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Southeast of Iran

Jundishapur J Microbiol. 2015 Aug 29;8(8):e21838. doi: 10.5812/jjm.21838. eCollection 2015 Aug.

Authors

Shirin Saravani¹, Hamideh Kadeh¹, Ebrahim Miri-Moghaddam², Ali Zekri³, Nima Sanadgol⁴, Aliye Gholami⁵

Affiliations

¹ Oral and Dental Disease Research Center, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran.
² Genetics of Non-Communicable Disease Research Center, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran.
³ Department of Medical Genetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Zabol University, Zabol, IR Iran ; Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
⁵ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Zahedan University of Medical Science, Zahedan, IR Iran.

Abstract

Background: Carcinogenesis is a multi-step process and the role of infectious agents in this progression has not been fully identified. Since human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is frequently presented in the gingival sulcus fluid, we hypothesized that this virus would be important in the pathogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of active HCMV in different histopathological grades of OSCC in southeast of Iran.

Materials and methods: Forty eight individual specimens were evaluated in this study. Serial sections were obtained from paraffin-embedded tissue samples of OSCC biopsies. The frequency of HCMV was investigated using the real-time polymerase change reaction method after DNA extraction from biopsies.

Results: The mean age of the patients (66.7% female and 33.3% male) was 58.6 years. Only three cases (6.3%) of the grade I, OSCC biopsies, were positive for active HCMV with average load of 57.7 × 10(3).

Conclusions: According to the low prevalence of HCMV in OSCC, it seems that this virus plays a minor role in this kind of cancer at least in southeast of Iran. More comprehensive studies are needed to investigate the oncomodulatory effect of this virus on OSCC.

Keywords: Cancer; Cytomegalovirus; Human; Squamous Cell Carcinoma.