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Exploiting salivary miR-31 as a clinical biomarker of oral squamous cell carcinoma
Chung-Ji Liu1, Shu-Chun Lin, Cheng-Chieh Yang
1Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; MacKay Medicine, Nursing and Management College, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, MacKay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Background:
Oral carcinoma is an important malignancy throughout the world. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously expressed, non-coding RNAs that regulate post-transcriptional levels of targeted mRNAs. MiRNA-31(miR-31) is significantly upregulated in oral carcinoma tissues and plays oncogenic roles in oral carcinogenesis.
Methods:
We analyzed the levels of miR-31 in saliva of patients with oral carcinoma (n = 45), oral verrucous leukoplakia (n = 10), and control healthy individuals (n = 24) by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Results:
Salivary miR-31 was significantly increased in patients with oral carcinoma at all clinical stages, including very small tumors. However, our preliminary analysis showed no increase of salivary miR-31 in patients with oral verrucous leukoplakia relative to controls. The miR-31 was more abundant in saliva than in plasma, suggesting salivary miR-31 was a more sensitive marker for oral malignancy. After excision of oral carcinoma, salivary miR-31 was remarkably reduced, indicating that most of the upregulated salivary miR-31 came from tumor tissues.
Conclusion:
Our results point to a potential application of salivary miR-31 as a biomarker for early detection and postoperative follow-up of oral carcinoma.
