Background and objective: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common head and neck malignancy. Expression patterns of microRNAs (miRNAs) can direct us in identifying valuable biomarkers for the prognosis of different neoplasms. Inappropriate regulation of miRNAs during physiological procedures can result in malignancies including OSCC. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression of miR-486-3p, miR-561-5p, miR-548-3p, and miR-509-5p in tissue biopsy samples with and without OSCC.
Materials and methods: This case-control study was conducted on 17 healthy and 17 OSCC tissue biopsy samples. The expression of miRNAs was assessed using quantitative real-time PCR (q-RT-PCR) after RNA extraction from normal and cancer tissues and cDNA synthesis.
Results: The means of miRNA-486-3p, miR-561-5p, and miR-548-3p expression were significantly different between OSCC and control groups (p < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in means of miR-509-5p expression between OSCC and control groups (p = 0.179).
Conclusions: The findings of this study revealed that the expression of miR-486-3p and miR-561-5p was significantly lower in cancer samples compared to normal tissue samples. On the other hand, miR-548-3p expression increased in the OSCC group compared to the control group.
Keywords: gene expression; microRNA (miRNA); oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC); real time PCR.