Integrated Analysis and MicroRNA Expression Profiling Identified Seven miRNAs Associated With Progression of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

MicroRNAs have been used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for many cancers including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Several studies have been shown that microRNA (miRNA) play important roles during the progression of OSCC. However, the results vary largely in different studies due to different platforms and sample sizes. In this study, we systematically evaluated a large scale of miRNA profiles from current qualified OSCC samples, and further investigated the functions of genes regulated by these key miRNAs as well as the signaling pathways through which these miRNA effect carcinogenesis. Seven key miRNAs were identified, and of which three were significantly upregulated, including hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-31, hsa-miR-338, and four were downregulated, namely hsa-miR-125b, hsa-miR-133a, hsa-miR-133b, and hsa-miR-139. The function enrichment analysis revealed that target genes of upregulated miRNAs were associated with cellular protein metabolic process, macromolecule metabolic process, and TGF-beta pathway, while the targets of downregulated were enriched in negative regulation of macromolecule biosynthetic process and gene expression, and p53, long-term potentiation and adherens junction pathways. Transcription factor analysis revealed that there were 67 (51.1%) transcription factors influenced by both up and downregulated miRNAs. In summary, seven key miRNAs were found to play essential role in progression of OSCC, as well as the target genes and transcription factors of these miRNAs. The potential functions of these target genes identified in our study may be profitable to diagnosis and prognostic prediction of OSCC as biomarkers. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 2178-2185, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

MicroRNA meta-signature of oral cancer: evidence from a meta-analysis

“…Our results regarding mir-21 , mir-31 , mir-133 , and mir-139 deregulation in oral cancer are in line with findings reported in a recently published meta-analysis ( 21 ). Existing non-overlapping miRNAs between that and our study can be explained with more rigorous criteria applied in the selection process of our study.…”

Emerging roles of MiR-133a in human cancers

“…The combination of miR-133a and FOBT could be a potential detection mode in colorectal cancer screening [83]. Based on the information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and Metaanalysis results, along with bioinformatics analysis, miR-133a was recognized as a potential biomarker of NSCLC [84][85][86], oral cancer [87,88], osteosarcoma [89], cervical cancer [90], prostate cancer [91], digestive tumors [92] including EC [93][94][95], GC [96,97], pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) [98] and CRC [99]. A study of 8006 tumors including 19 tumor types suggested that hypoxia contributed to genomic instability.…”

Long non‐coding RNA MALAT1 promotes oral squamous cell carcinoma development via microRNA‐125b/STAT3 axis

“…In addition, miR‐125b can play tumor suppressive role and improve Cisplatin sensitivity in Osteosarcoma (Wang, Zhang, Wu, Zhang et al, ). Previous study has reported that miR‐125b is downregulated in OSCC by performing bioinformatics (Yan, Luo, Zhang, Li, & Liu, ). In our present study, we uncovered that miR‐125b was significantly decreased in OSCC cells and can be sponged by MALAT1.…”