Oral carcinoma is the 6th most common cancer in the world. MicroRNAs are small non-coding single stranded RNAs. They have been shown to be capable of altering mRNA expression; thus some are oncogenic or tumor suppressive in nature. The salivary microRNA-31 has been proposed as a sensitive marker for oral malignancy since it was abundant in saliva more than in plasma. A total of 55 whole saliva samples were collected from 35 cases diagnosed with OC their ages and gender matched with 20 healthy subjects. TaqManq RT-PCR was performed for RNA samples. Mean age was 52.23+13.73 years in cases (range:17-70 years) with male predominance represented 69%. Risk of smoking and alcoholism was highly significant. The median fold change of miR-31 was significantly higher in patients group than in control group, 19.634 versus 1.962 (P<0.001). However, the correlation between age of patients and miR-31 fold change was non-significant negative correlation (r=-0.236,P>0.05). MedianmiR-31 fold change was 19.63 in smokers and 21.12 in drinkers. Salivary miR-31 appeared to have significantly elevated in OC patients which point to its potential application as a biomarker for early detection and postoperative follow-up
University of Baghdad
Digital Repository