Modified anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs) have been used by many groups to inhibit miRNAs with oncogenic properties. For example, Chan et al. successfully applied 2′-O-methyl- and DNA/LNA-mixed oligonucleotides to specifically knockdown miR-21, in order to investigate the potential contribution of this miRNA in the regulation of selleck inhibitor apoptosis-associated genes in glioblastoma cell lines [38]. Thus, to supplement and/or enhance the function of tumor suppressor miRNAs due to a deletion or a loss of function mutation, a therapeutic approach could entail

exogenous delivery of corrective synthetic miRNAs in the form of double-stranded miRNA mimics [39]. Takamizawa et al. found that enforced Alvocidib order expression of let-7 in the lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 inhibited lung cancer cell growth in vitro. This holds promise that let-7 may be useful in treatment of lung cancer or in enhancing see more currently available treatments [40]. The microRNA field is rapidly developing, and the functions and signaling pathways of increasingly greater numbers of miRNAs are being carefully studied. The activation or silencing of miRNAs identified in the present study and in previous studies could prove pivotal in the design of therapeutic strategies for OSCC treatment in the future,

although we are presently far from that point. Conclusion In summary, the specific miRNA expression levels identified by our study were similar with those reported in other studies, and suggested that a number of miRNAs could be significant in OSCC development. The next step will be to perform functional research of the three microRNAs (hsa-miR-338, mmu-miR-762, and mmu-miR-126-5p)

that were not found to have been altered in any malignancies. Acknowledgements We thank Liang Zhang, Jianqing Zhao, and Hongwei Liu (CapitalBio) for their technical assistance. This project was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 30550002). References 1. Bartel DP: MicroRNAs: Genomics biogenesis, mechanism, and function. Cell 2004, 116: 281–297.CrossRefPubMed 2. Lee RC, Feinbaum RL, Ambrose V: The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14. Cell 1993, 75: 843–854.CrossRefPubMed 3. Carleton M, Cleary MA, Linsley PS: MicroRNAs and cell cycle Interleukin-2 receptor regulation. Cell Cycle 2007, 6: 2127–2132.CrossRefPubMed 4. Miska EA: How microRNAs control cell division, differentiation and death. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2005, 15: 563–568.CrossRefPubMed 5. Callis TE, Chen JF, Wang DZ: MicroRNAs in skeletal and cardiac muscle development. DNA Cell Biol 2007, 26: 219–225.CrossRefPubMed 6. Calin GA, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Bichi R, Zupo S, Noch E, Aldler H, Rattan S, Keating M, Rai K, Rassenti L, Kipps T, Negrini M, Bullrich F, Croce CM: Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro-RNA genes miR-15 and miR-16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. PNAS 2002, 99: 15524–15529.CrossRefPubMed 7.