Purpose: It is very important to develop potential molecular associated with
oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) malignant transformation and progression. Thus, the aim of our study was to determine the
amino acid metabolic characteristics of OSCC patients and test their diagnostic value. Experimental Design: Eight pairs of matched
tumor and normal samples were collected for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) high-throughput untargeted analysis. Another 20 cases (each case including
tumor and normal tissues) were also enrolled for ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (UHPLC-MS/MS)
amino acid quantitative analysis. T-test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to determine candidate markers. Principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and heat map analysis were used to verify the ability of candidate markers to distinguish
tumors from normal tissues. Results: A total of 10
amino acids biomarker were selected as OSCC candidate diagnostic
biomarkers by GC-MS high-throughput untargeted metabolomics analyses [area under the curve (AUC) >0.80]. We further measured the specific concentration of these candidate
amino acids biomarkers in another batch of 20 cases by UHPLC-MS/MS quantitative analysis. The result validated that nine
amino acids had been detected, which had statistically significant difference (t-test, p < 0.05). Moreover, three of nine
amino acid markers (
glutamate,
aspartic acid, and
proline) displayed high sensitivity and specificity (AUC >0.90) by ROC curve analysis and obtained optimal sensitivity and specificity by binary logistic regression in the Glmnet package (AUC = 0.942). Conclusions: In conclusion, a panel including three
amino acids (
glutamate,
aspartic acid, and
proline) was identified as potential diagnostic
biomarkers of OSCC by a combination of non-targeted and targeted metabolomics methods.