Salivary microRNA: Discovery, Characterization, and Clinical Utility for Oral Cancer Detection

Abstract

Purpose: We have previously shown that a transcriptome is found in saliva and subpanels of these mRNAs can be used as oral cancer biomarkers. In this study, we measured the presence of microRNAs (miRNA) in saliva and determined their potential as an additional set of oral cancer biomarkers. Experimental Design: A total of 314 miRNAs were measured using reverse transcriptase-preamplification-quantitative PCR in 12 healthy controls. Degradation pattern of endogenous and exogenous saliva miRNAs were measured at room temperature over time. Selected miRNAs were validated in saliva of 50 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 50 healthy matched control subjects. Results: We detected ∼50 miRNAs in both the whole and supernatant saliva. Endogenous saliva miRNA degraded much slower compared with exogenous miRNA. Two miRNAs, miR-125a and miR-200a, were present in significantly lower levels (P < 0.05) in the saliva of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients than in control subjects. Conclusions: Both whole and supernatant saliva of healthy controls contained dozens of miRNAs, and similar to saliva mRNAs, these miRNAs are stable. Saliva miRNAs can be used for oral cancer detection. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(17):5473-7)

miRNAs as Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Current Perspectives

“…Studies conducted by several research groups have confirmed the presence of miRNAs in various body fluids in humans, including serum [49][50][51], plasma [49,50], saliva [52], urine [53], milk [54], cerebrospinal fluid [55] and seminal fluid [56]. In cancer, there is a distinct relationship between the type of biological material and the original location of the neoplasm (e.g.…”

Cigarette smoking substantially alters plasma microRNA profiles in healthy subjects

“…Subsequent reports have revealed the presence of miRNAs in saliva (Park et al, 2009;Michael et al, 2010) and urine (Hanke et al, 2010). These extracellular miRNAs are stable in the RNase-rich environment because they are enclosed in vesicles, including exosomes, microvesicles, apoptotic bodies, and ectosomes (Lee et al, 2012), or are associated with RNA-binding proteins, including nucleophosmin 1 (Wang K et al, 2010) or high-density lipoprotein (Vickers et al, 2011).…”

Salivary microRNAs Show Potential as a Noninvasive Biomarker for Detecting Resectable Pancreatic Cancer

“…Several miRNAs have been found to be aberrantly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissue, plasma, and serum (19). Moreover, salivary miRNAs have been reported as useful for detecting oral cancer (20,21), Sj€ ogren syndrome (22), and esophageal cancer (23,24). On the basis of these findings, we hypothesized that salivary miRNAs may also possess discriminatory power for pancreatic cancer.…”