Abstract
The levels of different classes of extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) remain stable in bodily fluids. The detection of either enriched or depleted specific subsets of salivary microRNAs (miRNAs) has the potential to serve as a non-invasive approach for biomarker development. Thus, salivary miRNAs have emerged as a promising molecular tool for early diagnosis and screening of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Total RNA was extracted from saliva supernatant of 33 OSCC patients and 12 controls (discovery set), and the differential expression of 8 cancer-related miRNAs was detected by TaqMan assay. Among the screened miRNAs, miR-30c-5p (p < 0.04) was significantly decreased in OSCC saliva. The same transcriptional behavior of miR30c-5p was observed in an additional validation set. miR-30c-5p showed a significant statistical difference between cases and controls with areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.71–0.89). The sensitivity and the specificity of miR-30c-5p were 86% and 74%, respectively. The target identification analysis revealed enrichment of miR-30c-5p targets in p53 and Wnt signaling pathways in OSCC. Additionally, the miR-30c-5p targets had clinical significance related to overall survival. In conclusion, these findings show that downregulated miR-30c-5p has the potential to serve as a novel, non-invasive biomarker for early OSCC detection.
Highlights
Oral cancer is the most frequent malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity
As we found that miR-30c-5p was underexpressed in saliva from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients from two different cohorts (83 OSCC and 54 controls in total), we hypothesized that the tumor tissues by themselves could be the source of this miRNA
As we analyzed saliva from oral cancer patients without any other malignancies, we could speculate that miR-30c-5p expression is OSCC-specific. These findings demonstrate that salivary miR-30c-5p could be suggested as a new biomarker for OSCC, which can be validated through further studies on different and larger patient cohorts
Summary
Oral cancer is the most frequent malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity. 90% of all oral malignancies histologically originate from squamous epithelium and are subsequently classified as oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). OSCC is still associated with a poor survival rate [1]. When the disease is detected at an early stage (T1), the 5-year survival rate can reach up to 80%. Diagnosis at later stages (T3 or T4) dramatically decreases the chances for survival to 20–40% [2,3,4,5]. There is an urgent need to find a quick, affordable and non-invasive approach that would help to detect and diagnose OSCC at an early stage, before metastatic spread
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