Circulating miR-223 in Oral Cancer: Its Potential as a Novel Diagnostic Biomarker and Therapeutic Target

The current study used an ultra-sensitive genome-wide miRNA array to investigate changes in circulating miRNAs in plasma from patients with oral cancer and healthy individuals. Results indicated that there were only a few circulating miRNAs, including miR-223, miR-26a, miR-126, and miR-21, that were up-regulated in patients with oral cancer. A subsequent validation test indicated that circulating miR-223 levels were significantly higher (~2-fold, P< 0.05) in patients with oral cancer than in those without cancer. Moreover, in vitro studies revealed that miR-223 functions as a tumor suppressor. Circulating levels of a total of 1,211 genome-wide miRNAs were measured with a microarray assay using pooled plasma samples from 5 patients with gingival squamous cell carcinoma (GSCC) and pooled normal plasma samples from 10 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The circulating miRNA profile for patients with oral cancer was compared with that for controls.