Tissue and serum microRNA profile of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients

Abstract

Head and neck cancer is characterized by malignant tumors arising from the epithelium covering the upper aerodigestive tract, and the majority of these epithelial malignancies are squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the oral cavity (OSCCs). The aim of the current work was to identify miRNAs regulated in OSCC cancerous tissue when compared to a healthy adjacent tissue and to verify the presence of the same miRNAs in the circulation of these patients. For that serum samples and biopsies of healthy and tumor tissues were collected from five patients diagnosed with OSCC of the oral cavity, RNA was extracted from these samples and microRNAs libraries were prepared and sequenced. A total 255 miRNAs were identified in tissue and 381 different miRNAs were identified in serum samples. When comparing the miRNA expression between tumor and healthy tissue we identified 48 miRNAs (25 down- and 23 up-regulated) that were differentially expressed (FDR < 0.05). From these 48 differentially expressed miRNAs in tissue, 30 miRNAs were also found in the serum of the same patients. hsa-miR-32-5p was up-regulated in tumor compared to healthy tissue in our study, and was previously shown to be up-regulated in the serum of OSCC patients. Therefore, this suggests that miRNAs can be used as potential non-invasive biomarkers of OSCC.

RALBP1 regulates oral cancer cells via Akt and is a novel target of miR‐148a‐3p and miR‐148b‐3p

“…And (b) epigenetic, viz, promoter hypermethylation to down regulate transcription of tumor suppressor genes, methylation of p16 and methylation of O 6 ‐methylguanine‐DNA‐methyltransferase. Recent advances have also predicted the role of microRNA (miRNA) and long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) as epigenetic regulators in oral cancer.…”

“…One of these studies, albeit with a lower sample number identified that 48 miRNA were differentially regulated in oral cancer tissues versus healthy tissues. Of these 48, significant numbers, were found to activate 137 genes of the Ras pathway, 129 genes of the endocytosis pathway among other genes belonging to different pathways . Information regarding the overlap of these miRNAs is unknown, but it was of significant interest to us that a higher proportion of miRNAs dysregulated in OSCC were targeting pathways of Ras and endocytosis, having common genetic elements promoting tumorigenesis.…”

Blood Serum From Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Induces Altered MicroRNA and Target Gene Expression Profile in Treated Cells

“…Mir-31 has been shown to have oncogenic influence ( 51 ) and the potential as a biomarker for detection and to monitor treatment response and prognosis ( 52 – 55 ). Along with miR-135b-5p, miR-31-3p has also been shown by our lab to be upregulated in tumor tissue of HNSCC patients compared with adjacent normal tissue ( 56 ). Both miR-31-3p and miR-135b-5p were found to be upregulated in cells treated with serum from cancer patients in this study.…”

Cell-Free microRNAs as Potential Oral Cancer Biomarkers: From Diagnosis to Therapy

“…These results indicate that tumor miRNAs are present in the bloodstream as cell-free miRNAs and exosomal-miRNAs, however, exosomal-miRNAs could better reflect the tumor miRNA profile. Schneider et al [67] compared the miRNA profile in tissue and serum samples of five oral squamous cell carcinoma patients by RNA sequencing. After bioinformatic analysis, a total of 255 miRNAs were identified in tissue (cancer and noncancer) and 381 miRNAs were detected in serum; 214 miRNAs were present in both tissue and plasma.…”