{
  "abstract": "Background/Objectives: Oral leukoplakia (OL) is a common oral potentially malignant disorder, but prediction of malignant progression remains challenging. This study investigated miR-21-5p and miR-21-3p expression in healthy oral mucosa, OL with epithelial dysplasia, and early oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), together with clinicopathological associations. Methods: Sixty participants were divided into three groups: exposure-free healthy controls (n = 20), histopathologically confirmed OL with epithelial dysplasia (n = 20), and early OSCC (pT1-2N0M0; n = 20). Expression was quantified by RT-qPCR and evaluated using exploratory correlation, regression, Welch's ANOVA, and Games-Howell comparisons. Results: miR-21-5p differed significantly among groups (p < 0.001). Expression was lower in OL than in healthy controls and early OSCC (both p < 0.001), whereas early OSCC and controls did not differ (p = 0.997). miR-21-5p was inversely associated with dysplasia grade (Spearman's ρ = -0.54, p = 0.013; unstandardized regression coefficient B = -0.646, p = 0.017). miR-21-3p was numerically higher in early OSCC, but its overall group difference was not significant (p = 0.051). Conclusions: The two mature miR-21 strands showed distinct, non-linear expression patterns across the three groups. These findings are preliminary and hypothesis-generating; the cross-sectional design does not establish predictive or prognostic value, and validation in larger longitudinal cohorts is required. The unexpected miR-21-5p pattern remains unexplained and requires independent validation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Clinic for Dental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia.",
    "Department for Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia.",
    "Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia.",
    "Department of Oral Surgery, Clinic for Dental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia.",
    "Department of Pathology, Institute of Pathological Anatomy, Clinical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia.",
    "Laboratory for Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, 18108 Niš, Serbia."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Miloš Trajković",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1340-8393"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Dragan Krasić",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0536-4850"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Marija Vukelić-Nikolić"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Predrag Radović"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Tatjana Jevtović-Stoimenov",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0600-5411"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Simona Stojanović"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Nikola Živković"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Miloš Stojanović"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Nikola Krstić",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4398-1449"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fwrqw0s5a9wzf.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3390/cancers18193116",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13664612",
  "id": "fwrqw0s5a9wzf",
  "issns": [
    "2072-6694"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42882811",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1306|MicroRNA in disease regulation"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214301736",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13664612?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13664612",
  "pmid": "42882811",
  "published": "2026-09-25",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fwrqw0s5a9wzf.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42882811",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42882811"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:1306|MicroRNA in disease regulation",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Distinct Expression Patterns of miR-21-5p and miR-21-3p in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia and Early Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.",
  "title_text": "Distinct Expression Patterns of miR-21-5p and miR-21-3p in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia and Early Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fwrqw0s5a9wzf",
  "venue": "Cancers",
  "versions": []
}