• Ping Zhang, Peng Zhou, and Min Yao.
• Department of Stomatology, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, National Children's Medical Center, Shanghai 201102, China.
• Afr Health Sci. 2023 Jun 1; 23 (2): 616622616-622.

BackgroundTo study the expressions of autophagy-related proteins Beclin-1 and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in smoking and non-smoking patients with oral leukoplakia (OLK).MethodsA total of 240 patients diagnosed as OLK from January 2017 to December 2017 were enrolled. Beclin-1 and mTOR expressions were detected by immunohistochemistry. Their clinical data were collected. The correlations of smoking with Beclin-1 and mTOR expressions as well as clinical factors were explored by Spearman's analysis.ResultsThere were significant differences in gender ratio, age, lesion location, severity and malignancy between smoking and non-smoking OLK patients (P<0.05). The positive expression rate of Beclin-1 in OLK patients with simple hyperplasia and abnormal hyperplasia in the smoking group was significantly lower than that of the non-smoking group (P<0.05). In the abnormal hyperplasia group, the number of cigarettes daily was significantly positively correlated with mTOR expression (r=0.843, P=0.042). After the simple hyperplasia group was included, there was a positive correlation between smoking age and positive expression rate of mTOR (r=0.942, P=0.012). For number of cigarettes and smoking age, the positive expression rates of Beclin-1 and mTOR showed significant negative correlations (r=-0.952, P=0.003, r=-0.953, P=0.002).ConclusionAutophagy-related proteins Beclin-1 and mTOR may be involved in the smoking-induced pathogenesis of OLK.© 2023 Zhang P et al.

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