Lung cancer increases H2O2 concentration in the exhaled breath condensate, extent of mtDNA damage, and mtDNA copy number in buccal mucosa

Natalya A Kolbasina; Artem P Gureev; Olga V Serzhantova; Andrey A Mikhailov; Ivan P Moshurov; Anatoly A Starkov; Vasily N Popov

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04303

Lung cancer increases H₂O₂ concentration in the exhaled breath condensate, extent of mtDNA damage, and mtDNA copy number in buccal mucosa

Heliyon. 2020 Jun 28;6(6):e04303. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04303. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

Natalya A Kolbasina¹, Artem P Gureev¹, Olga V Serzhantova^{1

2}, Andrey A Mikhailov^{1

2}, Ivan P Moshurov², Anatoly A Starkov³, Vasily N Popov^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Cytology and Bioengineering, Voronezh State University, Voronezh, Russia.
² Voronezh Regional Clinical Oncological Dispensary, Voronezh, Russia.
³ Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies, Voronezh, Russia.

Abstract

We have shown that the H₂O₂ concentration in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in lung cancer patients increases significantly compared to the EBC of healthy people and revealed the correlation between the H₂O₂ level in the EBC and amount of mtDNA damage in buccal mucosa cells. The H₂O₂ hyper-production may trigger mitochondrial biogenesis, thereby resulting in an increase in mtDNA copy number. However, we did not observe a significant difference in the studied parameters between smokers and non-smokers. Overall, our data suggest that H₂O₂ concentration in the EBC, the extent of mtDNA damage, and mtDNA copy number in buccal mucosa could be potential as an early diagnostic marker of lung cancer.

Keywords: Biochemistry; Biological sciences; Cancer research; Hydrogen peroxide; Lung cancer markers; Mitochondria; Molecular biology; Oncology; Reactive oxygen species; mtDNA damage.