A pilot study reveals the potential of miR-31-3p and miR-196a-5p as non-invasive biomarkers in advanced laryngeal cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Recently, miRNAs have become popular molecules used as non-invasive biomarkers in cancer diseases. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the expression of four miRNAs isoforms: miR-31-3p, miR-196a-5p, miR-210-3p and miR-424-5p in plasma and tissue samples from patients with advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and healthy controls. Materials and methods: Fresh-frozen tumour and normal laryngeal tissue as well as plasma samples were obtained from 22 patients diagnosed with advanced LSCC. The control group included plasma samples from 21 cancer-free volunteers. Total RNA (including miRNAs) extraction, reverse transcription and real time qPCR were the laboratory techniques used in the study. The obtained results were analyzed using SPSS software v. 23. Results: We found that miR-31-3p, miR-196a-5p, and miR-210-3p levels were significantly elevated in laryngeal tumour tissue, but only the levels of miR-31-3p and miR-196a-5p were significantly upregulated in the plasma LSCC target group. Positive correlation was obtained for miR-31-3p (rs=0.443, p=0.039) and miR-196a-5p (rs=0.548; p=0.008) between plasma and adjacent tumour tissue LSCC samples. ROC analyses were used to evaluate the discriminative power of both miRNAs alone and in combination. The combination of miR-31-3p and miR-196a-5p showed best results with AUC=0.978 (95% CI: 0.945–1.000, p<0.001) with 100% sensitivity and 81% specificity at cut-off: RQ=2.99. Conclusions: Based on this miR-31-3p and miR-196a-5p are proposed as potential biomarkers for validation in larger LSCC group and could be included in a non-invasive miRNAs set for detection of advanced LSCC.

Promising Biomarkers in Head and Neck Cancer: The Most Clinically Important miRNAs

“…The utility of miR-31 as a biomarker is further explored in several studies which suggest that, in various HNSCC patient sample types (saliva, plasma, tumor tissues), the expression levels of miR-31 increase and are positively correlated with poor pathological parameters [ 147 , 153 ] and advanced staging [ 155 ]. MiR-31 quantification could also serve as a useful marker of post-operative follow-up of OSCC, as salivary levels appear to be remarkably reduced after the excision of the oral carcinoma [ 154 ].…”

Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of microRNAs in Patients with Laryngeal Cancer: A Systematic Review

“…Of those, 166 were excluded for describing HNSCC cases without focus on the larynx ( n = 28), for being exclusively in vitro studies ( n = 39), for having a number of patients less than 10 or for using patient data from public databases ( n = 50), for not quantifying miRNAs in patient samples ( n = 43) and for other reasons, such as for not having statistically significant results or wrong miRNA sequence ( n = 6). Finally, the review was performed on a total of 177 studies [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 …”

Does the Necrotic Portion of Metastatic Lymphadenopathy from Squamous Cell Carcinoma Still Have Tumoral Oncologic Information? Differential Diagnosis of Benign Necrotic Lymphadenopathy Using microRNA

“…miR-31 is highly expressed, especially in SqCC, and its expression is a potential marker of metastasis or poor prognosis [ 37 ]. Previous studies have revealed that the expression levels of miR-31 are increased in various HNSCC samples (saliva, plasma, and tumor tissues) and are positively correlated with poor pathological parameters [ 38 , 39 ] and advanced staging [ 40 ]. miR-203 and miR-205 are well-known tumor suppressors in HNSCC.…”