Increase of microRNA miR-31 level in plasma could be a potential marker of oral cancer.
BACKGROUND
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a worldwide disease. MicroRNAs are endogenously expressed non-coding RNAs that have important biological and pathological functions. miR-31 was found markedly up-regulated in OSCC and several other malignancies. However, miR-31 expression was also down-regulated in the metastasis process of breast carcinoma.


METHODS
Using quantitative RT-PCR analysis, we identified plasma miR-31 in OSCC patients (n = 43) and case controlled individuals (n = 21). Nine OSCC patients saliva were also analyzed. The Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon matched pairs test were used to compare the differences among the various clinical variants.


RESULTS
miR-31 in plasma was significantly elevated in OSCC patients relative to age and sex-matched control individuals. This marker yielded a receiver operating characteristic curve area of 0.82 and an accuracy of 0.72 defined by leave-one-out cross-validation. In addition, the plasma miR-31 in patients was remarkably reduced after tumor resection suggesting that this marker is tumor associated. Our preliminary analysis also demonstrated the feasibility of detecting the increase of miR-31 in patient's saliva.


CONCLUSIONS
This study concluded that plasma miR-31 could be validated a marker of OSCC for diagnostic uses.
Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
C-J
CJ
Liu
S-Y
SY
Kao
H-F
HF
Tu
M-M
MM
Tsai
K-W
KW
Chang
S-C
SC
Lin
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000601:surgery; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000601:surgery; D012372:ROC Curve; D012016:Reference Values; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C534612:MIRN31 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs