Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a common malignancy with high mortality rate. Hence, early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma is crucial for preventing the development of the disorder. The cetuximab has been testified in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients, while the accurate targeting is still uncertain. Herein, differential expression analysis was performed using limma package of R. Overlapped differentially expressed genes both in oral pathogens infected gingival cells and oral squamous cell carcinoma samples were identified via cross analysis. The potential target genes of cetuximab administration were also established. Several immune-associated pathways, such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions, were identified to be significantly perturbed during the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma. A total of six genes including C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 8, NUAK family kinase 2, thioredoxininteracting protein, spectrin repeat containing nuclear envelope protein 1 and long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 474 were screened to be potentially involved in the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma. A logistic regression model was constructed based on NUAK family kinase 2, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 and thioredoxin-interacting protein, and the receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that the logistic regression diagnostic model could reliably separate oral tumor samples from normal samples. We construct a logistic regression diagnostic model based on three key genes, NUAK family kinase 2, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 and thioredoxin-interacting protein, which is probably conducive to the early diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma.