Salivary miRNAs could help in screening for oral potentially malignant disorders

Salivary levels of miRNA-21 and miRNA-31 appear to correlate with the onset and progression of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) and could be used as noninvasive biomarkers for screening, a recent study has found.

Researchers conducted a pooled analysis of 17 eligible studies retrieved from the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Overall, 426 OPMD patients and 486 controls were included, in whom the most prominent salivary miRNA measured were miRNA-21, miRNA-31, and miRNA-142.

Expression levels were compared between OPMD and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) to determine the capacity of the miRNA biomarkers to predict malignant transformation.

Bubble chart analysis showed that elevated saliva levels of miRNA-31 was upregulated in patients whose disease progressed, according to two studies. Salivary miRNA-21 was also heightened in 20 OSCC patients as opposed to 20 OPMD comparators, while an analysis of 20 OSCC and 40 OPMD patients revealed a similar pattern for miRNA-184.

Overall, miRNA-21, miRNA-31, miRNA-184, and miRNA-375 were involved in disease progression culminating in OSCC development, while miRNA-27b, miRNA-137, and miRNA-142 were tied with pathogenesis.

“Aberrant salivary 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,” the researchers said, adding that the combination of multiple markers could potentially maximize predictive capacity for OPMD.