Molecular Screening of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Detection of LMP-1, LMP-2 Gene Expression in Vietnamese Nasopharyngeal Swab Samples.

Lao TD1, Nguyen TAH2, Ngo KD2, Thieu HH2, Nguyen MT3, Nguyen DH3, Le TAH1.

Author information

1: Department of Pharmaceutical and Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Biotechnology, Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Email:thuy.lha@ou.edu.vn
2: Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Science, VNU-HCM, Vietnam.
3: Cho Ray Hospital, HCMC, Vietnam.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

This study aimed to characterize the expression of LMP-1, LMP-2 in clinical swab samples in order to find out the potential molecular based biomarker for NPC diagnosis and screening, which could offer a chance in development of rapid method for NPC diagnosis in Vietnamese population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A total of 93 nasopharyngeal carcinoma swab samples and 100 healthy nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected to evaluate LMP-1, LMP-2 expression by Real-time reversed PCR.

RESULTS:

we figured out the significant association between the expression of LMP-1 (counting for 48.39%), LMP-2 (counting for 39.78%) and NPC. No LMP-1 expression was observed, and only 1 of 100 specimens was detected with LMP-2 positive in healthy samples. In the combination of LMP-1 (+) and/or LMP-2 (+), the frequency of positive was 53.76%, greater than each gene expression. Additionally, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value of assay were 99.00%, 98.04%, 69.72%, and 77.02%, respectively. Additionally, the LMP-2 expression level was 5.50 times higher in NPC samples than non-cancerous samples.

CONCLUSION:

Our results indicated the molecular invasive method based on the expression of LMP-1, LMP-2 in swab samples would be a promising supplement in NPC diagnosis, screening in the near future in Vietnam.