Research Projects

Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) are the most common cancer in Asia, accounting for around 1,31,610 deaths. In 2020, 95,923 men were diagnosed with OSCCs, with men having nearly three times the number of deaths as women. Treatment options include surgery alone or a combination of surgery and chemoradiotherapy. Despite significant breakthroughs in cancer therapy, OSCC patient survival rates have remained stagnant for four decades. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a crucial role in invasion, disease advancement, and conferring chemo-resistance in oral cancer cells. Cells with an EMT phenotype that loses polarity and cell-cell interactions generate treatment resistance in malignancies. A major concern while treating patients with OSCC is treatment resistance, which is associated with malignancies becoming more aggressive and metastatic. A recent study found that Y chromosome-linked genes are engaged in various biological processes other than determining male gender. Loss of the Y chromosome (LoY) was discovered in 53% of oropharyngeal, hypopharyngeal, and laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas and associated with advanced malignancy. UTY (Ubiquitously Transcribed Tetratricopeptide Repeat-Containing, Y-Linked) is a tumor suppressor gene frequently deleted in myeloid and prostate cancers, leading to more advanced cancers. The significance of Y-linked genes in OSCC invasion is urgently needed to be understood. This study will help develop alternative therapeutic approaches for the treatment of invasive OSCC patients. The hypothesis is that lack of UTY expression leads to an invasive phenotype in oral cancer cells. Restoring UTY expression in OSCC cells may inhibit cell proliferation, migration, EMT process, and invasion, and establish a fresh link between EMT and loss of Y-chromosome-related genes and current OSCC treatment regimens.