METABOLOMIC PROFILING ANALYSIS IN THE MALIGNANT TRANSFORMATION OF PLEOMORPHIC ADENOMA

Abstract

Salivary gland tumors are a group of unusual lesions with heterogeneous clinical and microscopic characteristics. Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) represents the most common salivary neoplasm. Although it is benign, the AP tends to present recurrences in addition to being able to undergo malignant transformation. Carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (CXPA), is a malignant entity that originated from the epithelial and/or myoepithelial components in an AP. It is a rare tumor and usually takes aggressive behavior, characterized by recurrences, metastases, and evolution to death. Metabolomics is used in the investigation of the final products of the information flow of a biological system, the metabolites. In the context of pathologies, the study of the metabolome helps to understand pathological mechanisms as well as to identify biomarkers. Based on these aspects, this study aims to analyze the metabolomic profile over the malignant transformation of the PA. Paraffinized tissue samples from PA, CXPA, and control will be used. Paraffinized tissue samples from AP, CXAP, and control will be used. The identification of the metabolites will be performed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the data analysis will be done through software and libraries for metabolomic studies. We hope that our results can bring more information about the etiopathogenic events over the malignant transformation of PA, as well as correlate them with results from our research group.