Assessment of MicroRNA-15a and MicroRNA-16-1 Salivary Level in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients

Abstract

Background: Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) includes more than 90% of malignancies of the oral cavity. Early diagnosis could effectively improve patients' quality of life and treatment outcomes of oral cancers. MicroRNAs as non-encoding genes have great potential to initiate or suppress cancer progression. Recent studies have shown that disruption of micro-RNA regulation is a common occurrence in cancers. Objective: This study set out to evaluate the expression of microRNA-15a (miR-15a) and microRNA-16-1 (miR-16-1) in the saliva of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) patients in comparison with a healthy control group. Methods: This case-control study was performed on fifteen patients with OSCC and fifteen healthy volunteers as the control group. A 5 ml of non-stimulating whole saliva was collected by spitting method from patients and controls and stored at -70oC. The expression of miR-15a and miR-16-1 was investigated using quantitative Reverse-Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR). Results: MiR-15a and miR-16-1 were downregulated in OSCC patients compared with the control group (p<0.001). The sensitivity of miR-15a and miR-16-1 in differentiating OSCC patients from healthy individuals was 93.3% and 86.67%, respectively, and their specificity was 86.67% and 92.33%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of miR-15a was 90%, and miR-16-1 was 93.3%. Conclusion: The present study showed a decrease in the relative expression of miR-15a and miR-16-1 in OSCC patients compared with healthy individuals. It is probable to introduce salivary values of miR-15a and miR-16-1 as a non-invasive tool for early detection of OSCC. Decreased expression of miR-15a and miR-16-1 in OSCC indicates the possible effective role of these genes in OSCC etiopathogenesis.

Promising Biomarkers in Head and Neck Cancer: The Most Clinically Important miRNAs

“…In OSCC tissues, miR-16 is markedly decreased compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues [ 273 , 274 , 275 ]. Salivary miR-16 levels are also downregulated in patients with OSCC [ 276 ]. Notably, miR-16 expression is downregulated in patients with metastatic oral cancer and a more advanced TNM stage [ 162 , 273 ], and it is associated with poor overall survival; therefore, it could be used as a robust prognostic biomarker [ 162 ].…”

A Novel Saliva-Based miRNA Profile to Diagnose and Predict Oral Cancer

“…In contrast, miR-16-1 showed a sensitivity and speci city of 86.67% and 92.33%, respectively. miR-15a shows more sensitivity than our miRNA signature in discriminating OSCC from controls, which may be due to the low sample number recruited in their study 20 . Similarly, Romani et al reported that a panel of miR-106-5p, miR-423-5p, and miR-193b was able to distinguish OC (n = 55) from healthy controls (n = 39) with an AUC of 0.98, sensitivity of 97.4% and speci city of 94.2%.…”

A novel saliva-based miRNA profile to diagnose and predict oral cancer

“…miR-15a shows more sensitivity than our miRNA signature in discriminating OSCC from controls, which may be due to the low sample number recruited in their study. 22 Similarly, Romani et al reported that a panel of miR-106-5p, miR-423-5p, and miR-193b was able to distinguish OC ( n = 55) from healthy controls ( n = 39) with an AUC of 0.98, sensitivity of 97.4% and specificity of 94.2%. Their study considered only the upregulated miRNAs, whereas we included both upregulated and downregulated ones to eliminate bias in selecting biomarkers.…”