Betel quid (BQ) is a psychostimulant, an addictive substance, and a group 1
carcinogen that exhibits the potential to induce adverse health effects. Approximately, 600 million users chew a variety of BQ. Areca nut (AN) is a necessary ingredient in BQ products.
Arecoline is the primary
alkaloid in the AN and can be metabolized through the
cytochrome P450 (CYP) superfamily by inducing
reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Full-length
CYP26B1 is related to the development of oral
pharyngeal cancers. We investigated whether a splice variant of
CYP26B1 is associated with the occurrence of ROS related oral and
pharyngeal cancer. Cytotoxicity assays were used to measure the effects of
arecoline on cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. In vitro and in vivo studies were conducted to evaluate the expression of the
CYP26B1 splice variant. The
CYP26B1 splice variant exhibited lower expression than did full-length
CYP26B1 in the human gingival fibroblast-1 and Ca9-22 cell models. Increased expression of the
CYP26B1 splice variant was observed in human
oral cancer tissue compared with adjacent normal tissue, and increased expression was observed in patients at a late
tumor stage. Our results suggested that the
CYP26B1 splice variant is associated with the occurrence of BQ-related
oral cancer.