Middle East Journal of Cancer

Upregulation of LncRNA SNHG3 and HOXB8 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Association with Metastasis and Poor Histological Differentiation

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article(s)

Authors

Elham Rezaei 1, 2
Habib Zarredar 3
Fatemeh Manafzadeh 1
milad Asadi 4
Dariush Shanehbandi 5
Azam Safary 6
Haleh Mikaeili 7
Shahram Ghasembaglou 8

1 Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

2 Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

3 Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran

4 Department of basic oncology of health institute of Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.

5 Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

6 Connective Tissue Diseases Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

7 Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

8 Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Department, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

10.30476/mejc.2026.112102.2449
Abstract
Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is an aggressive head and neck malignancy. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and developmental regulatory genes have been implicated in tumor initiation and progression. The present study aimed to evaluate the expression level of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene 3 (SNHG3 (and homeobox B8 (HOXB8 (in OSCC tissues compared with paired normal marginal tissues, as well as their correlation with clinicopathological parameters and potential diagnostic value.
Method: A total number of 50 paired tumor and marginal tissues were collected in this case-control study. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, cDNA synthesis, and RNA extraction were completed, and levels of expression were normalized to GAPDH. Data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, paired Student’s t-tests, Wilcoxon tests, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis via GraphPad Prism software (version 9.5.1), with a significance level set at P < 0.05.
Results: HOXB8 and SNHG3 were significantly overexpressed in tumor tissues (HOXB8: fold change = 1.281, P = 0.0092; SNHG3: fold change = 1.174, P = 0.0453). SNHG3 showed weak diagnostic value (Area under the curve (AUC) = 0.59), while HOXB8 demonstrated limited discriminatory performance (AUC = 0.6059). Both genes were considerably related with markers of tumor aggressiveness, including lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and poor differentiation. The combined multi-marker panel successfully enhanced diagnostic accuracy, yielding a superior and statistically significant AUC of 0.6462 (95% confidence interval: 0.5881–0.7043, P = 0.0068).
Conclusion: SNHG3 and HOXB8 are upregulated in OSCC and were correlated with aggressive clinicopathological features in OSCC malignancy.

Highlights

Shahram Ghasembaglou (google scholar)

Keywords

Oral squamous cell carcinoma
SNHG3
HOXB8
lncRNA
Biomarkers
Subjects

Please cite this article as:

 Rezaei E, Zarredar H, Manafzadeh F, Asadi M, Shanehbandi D, Safary A, et al. Upregulation of LncRNA SNHG3 and HOXB8 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Association with Metastasis and Poor Histological Differentiation. Middle East J Cancer. 2026: in press. doi: 10.30476/mejc.2026.112102.2449.

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Middle East Journal of Cancer

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 July 2027

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