Association of salivary miRNAs with onset and progression of oral potentially malignant disorders: Searching for noninvasive biomarkers

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: There is an urgent need for noninvasive biomarkers to diagnose oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD). A wide range of over 20 miRNAs in saliva of OPMD patients have been investigated in different studies. Yet, which of the ones provide a better power of discrimination for the diagnosis of OPMD onset and progression are uncertain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 17 eligible studies including 426 cases of OPMD and 486 control subjects (352 normal mucosa and 134 oral squamous cell carcinoma) were summarized. RESULTS: The bubble chart analysis showed that the most power salivary miRNA associated with OPMD onset was miR-21, followed by miR-31 and miR-142; the better power miRNAs associated with recurrence and malignant progression of OPMD were miR-31, miR-21, and miR-184. CONCLUSION: Salivary miRNAs, especially miR-21 and miR-31, were associated with onset and progression of OPMD, and could then serve as noninvasive biomarkers for screening OPMD and detecting malignant changes.