Association of salivary miRNAs with onset and progression of oral potentially malignant disorders: Searching for noninvasive biomarkers

Abstract

Background/purposeThere is an urgent need for noninvasive biomarkers to diagnose oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD). A wide range of over 20 miRNAs in saliva of OPMD patients have been investigated in different studies. Yet, which of the ones provide a better power of discrimination for the diagnosis of OPMD onset and progression are uncertain. Materials and methodsA total of 17 eligible studies including 426 cases of OPMD and 486 control subjects (352 normal mucosa and 134 oral squamous cell carcinoma) were summarized. ResultsThe bubble chart analysis showed that the most power salivary miRNA associated with OPMD onset was miR-21, followed by miR-31 and miR-142; the better power miRNAs associated with recurrence and malignant progression of OPMD were miR-31, miR-21, and miR-184. ConclusionSalivary miRNAs, especially miR-21 and miR-31, were associated with onset and progression of OPMD, and could then serve as noninvasive biomarkers for screening OPMD and detecting malignant changes.