Table 2.

Salivary microRNAs associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)

miRNA	Sample type	Role in OSCC	Mechanism	Regulation	References
miR-21	Whole saliva	Promotes cell proliferation and survival	Targets TSG, PTEN and PDCD4	Upregulated	[50]
miR-31	Whole saliva	Facilitates tumor invasion and metastasis	Regulates EMT by targeting genes involved in cell adhesion and ECM degradation	Upregulated	[51]
miR-184	Saliva supernatant	Associated with tumor progression and aggressiveness	Targets AKT2, affecting cell proliferation and apoptosis	Upregulated	[52]
miR-125a	Saliva supernatant	Suppresses tumor growth	Targets ERBB2, affecting cell proliferation	Downregulated	[52]
miR-200a	Whole saliva	Inhibits EMT and metastasis	Targets ZEB1 and ZEB2, which are EMT regulators	Downregulated	[50]
miR-146a	Saliva supernatant	Modulates inflammatory response and cell proliferation	Targets TRAF6 and IRAK1, involved in NF-κB pathway	Downregulated	[53]
miR-139	Whole saliva	Suppresses tumor growth and invasion	Targets MMP11, affecting cell migration	Downregulated	[54]
miR-372	Saliva supernatant	Promotes cell proliferation	Targets LATS2, affecting Hippo signaling pathway	Upregulated	[54]
miR-155	Whole saliva	Inhibits apoptosis	Targets pro-apoptotic genes	Upregulated	[50]
miR-9	Saliva supernatant	Promotes cell migration and invasion	Targets E-cadherin, affecting cell adhesion	Upregulated	[53]
miR-24	Whole saliva	Associated with tumor aggressiveness	Targets Bim, affecting apoptosis	Upregulated	[51]
miR-27b	Saliva supernatant	Suppresses cell proliferation	Targets MYC, affecting cell cycle progression	Downregulated	[54]
miR-142-3p	Whole saliva	Inhibits cell proliferation and migration	Targets CDK4, affecting cell cycle regulation	Downregulated	[52]
miR-486-5p	Saliva supernatant	Correlates with advanced tumor stages	Targets OLFM4, affecting cell adhesion and invasion	Downregulated	[51]
miR-191	Whole saliva	Promotes cell proliferation and invasion	Targets TIMP3 and CDK6	Upregulated	[50]
miR-203	Saliva supernatant	Suppresses tumor growth and EMT	Targets Src, promoting cell differentiation	Downregulated	[53]