Salivary Antisense Non-Coding RNA In the INK4 Locus & Maternal Expressed Gene 3 as early biomarkers in Detection of Malignant Transformation of Oral Lichen Planus

Abstract

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a potentially malignant lesion. It is crucial to properly identify patients at risk of malignant transformation. LncRNA antisense non-coding RNA in the INK4 locus (ANRIL) has been known to advance tumor progression. Another type of lncRNAs is maternal expressed gene (MEG3) which is a tumor suppressor gene that can inhibit the advancement of malignancy. The goal of this study was to outline the relative fold expression of ANRIL and MEG3 in OLP and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The study included 20 histopathologically diagnosed OLP patients and 10 patients with OSCC. The relative fold expression of ANRIL and MEG3 in the OLP group was compared to OSCC group using qRT-PCR. The results showed that the relative fold expression of ANRIL was significantly increase in the OSCC compared to OLP group (p<0.01). ROC analysis showed that with cutoff value of 4.1 relative fold expression of ANRIL with sensitivity 0.8, specificity 0.7 and AUC 0.85. The decrease in MEG3 was insignificant. ANRIL relative fold expression could perform an essential part in OSCC progression, and could assist in the future as a potential biomarker for malignant transformation of OLP.