Association of the mir‑499 polymorphisms with oral cavity and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in an Iranian population

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common oral malignancy. Some evidence indicated that there is a correlation between microRNA single nucleotide polymorphisms and the risk of oral cancer. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between mir‑499 polymorphism with the risk of oral cavity and oropharyngeal SCC in a subset of Iranian Population.

In this case–control pilot study total of 112 participants including 56 histopathlogically confirmed oral and oropharyngeal SCC patients and 56 age‑ and sex‑matched controls were included The mir‑499 rs3746444 T/C polymorphism was detected using polymerase chain reaction‑restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The comparisons of the distribution of the allele and genotype frequencies were performed using Chi‑square test, and P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

The result of the present study indicated that the frequency distribution of mir‑499 was not significantly different between cases and controls (P > 0.05). We also did not find any significant association between the risk of the cancer and mir‑499 polymorphisms in the recessive (Odds ratio [OR]: 6.60; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.77–56.74; P = 0.11) and dominant (OR: 1; 95% CI: 0.37–2.74; P = 1) inheritance models even after adjustment for smoking.

The results of the present study indicated that the polymorphisms of mir‑499 are not associated with the risk of oral and oropharyngeal SCC in Iranian population. However, further large scale studies are needed to validate our findings.