The association between human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) and oral cancer has been widely reported. However, detecting anti-HPV antibodies in patient sera to determine risk for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has not been well studied. In the present investigation, a total of 206 OSCC serum samples from the Malaysian Oral Cancer Database & Tissue Bank System, with 134 control serum samples, were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) to detect HPV16-specific IgG and IgM antibodies. In addition, nested PCR analysis using comprehensive consensus primers (PGMY09/11 and GP5⁺/6⁺) was used to confirm the presence of HPV. Furthermore, we have evaluated the association of various additional causal factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol consumption, and betel quid chewing) in HPV-infected OSCC patients. Statistical analysis of the Malaysian population indicated that OSCC was more prevalent in female Indian patients that practices betel quid chewing. ELISA revealed that HPV16 IgG, which demonstrates past exposure, could be detected in 197 (95.6%) OSCC patients and HPV16-specific IgM was found in a total of 42 (20.4%) OSCC patients, indicating current exposure. Taken together, our study suggest that HPV infection may play a significant role in OSCC (OR: 13.6; 95% CI: 3.89-47.51) and HPV16-specific IgG and IgM antibodies could represent a significant indicator of risk factors in OSCC patients.

There are approximately 90% of the world natural rubber (NR) supplies are produced by the top 4 NR exporting countries, particularly Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The export challenges and uncertainties of the NR latex in the ASEAN market are influenced by many factors. All these issues have driven the motivation of this study that aims to investigate the factors affecting the export of the NR latex, to analyse the relationship among the export price, production and exchange rate with the export, and to predict the export of the NR latex of the four countries. The data from 1999 to 2016 are utilized as the panel data analysis and granger homogeneously causality test for estimations. Estimation reveals that the independent variables, namely export price and production are exhibiting significant positively and the exchange rate shows a negative relationship with export. To conclude, Indonesia and Malaysia are estimated to have decreasing trends of NR latex export. Inversely, Thailand and Vietnam are predicted to exhibit increasing trends of NR latex export. The novelty of this study concerns effectively on the enhancement and stability of NR production in the ASEAN markets despite of the challenges arising from the global market integration.