Serum mir-31-5p is a reliable biomarker in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral lichen planus

Abstract Background MicroRNAs have been proposed as a novel regulatory biomarker for gene expression and early diagnosis of cancers. In this study, we evaluate the expression level of miR-31-5p in the serum of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma, oral lichen planus, and a healthy control group to obtain a primary diagnostic biomarker. Materials and methods Serum was collected from patients with oral lichen planus ( n = 32), patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma ( n = 35), and healthy subjects ( n = 32). MicroRNA was isolated from serum and cDNA was made from it. Then, the quantitative and qualitative expression of miR-31-5p levels among the samples was checked by the qRT-PCR method. Results In this study, three groups were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed for miR-31-5p expression in serum. The results showed that there was a statistically significant correlation between the mean quantitative and qualitative expression of miR-31-5p among the three groups ( P < 0.05). Conclusions The expression of miR-31-5p was significantly higher in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral lichen planus compared with healthy controls. MiR-31-5p can be considered as a biomarker in serum that could be potentially reliable in the diagnosis and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma and also in the transformation of lichen planus.