JBR Journal of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Dental Science
Open Access

Research Article

Dysregulation of microRNAs Across Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Fields in Non-smokers

Rebecca Towle^1#, Mike Gorenchtein^1#, Christopher Dickman¹, Yuqi Zhu², Catherine F. Poh^1,2 and Cathie Garnis^1,3*

¹Department of Integrative Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada

²Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

³Division of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

^#These two authors equally contributed to this study.

Corresponding Author:

Cathie Garnis, PhD
BC Cancer Research Centre, 675 West 10th Avenue
Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1L3, Canada
Tel: 604-675-8000
Fax: 604-675-8283
E-mail: cgarnis@bccrc.ca

Received date: May 06, 2014; Accepted date: June 30, 2014; Published date: July 07, 2014

Citation: Towle R, Gorenchtein M, Dickman C, Zhu Y, Poh CF, et al. (2014) Dysregulation of microRNAs Across Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Fields in Non-smokers. J Interdiscipl Med Dent Sci 2:131. doi:10.4172/2376-032X.1000131

Copyright: © 2014 Garnis, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction: The main etiological factor for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is tobacco use; however nonsmoking cases have also been reported. The molecular basis of emerging oral malignancy in non-smokers is poorly understood. We seek to profile the microRNA patterns in this subset of patients.

Methods: We evaluated global microRNA expression in multiple biopsies representing varied stages of oral cancer/pre-cancer taken from a single, contiguous field of diseased oral tissue.

Results: We find distinct lists of frequently deregulated microRNA in each field. MiR-155 was selected for further validation in an independent cohort comprised of tissues from smokers and non-smokers. Highly expressed miR-155 was identified in 58% of OSCC cases and 83% of dysplasia cases.

Conclusions: We conclude that miR-155 may be a driver of oral tumorigenesis and that molecular heterogeneity across fields of diseased tissue has significant implications when selecting candidates for development of targeted therapies.

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