miRNA-101-1 and miRNA-221 expressions and their polymorphisms as biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignant tumor with an increasing incidence. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the major risk factors that lead to HCC development. MicroRNAs are conserved non-coding RNAs which regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. They have been recently identified as important regulators that affect carcinogenesis. Of these miRNAs, are miR-221 and miR-101-1, which their aberrant expressions have been reported to play an important role in HCC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In this study, we investigated the association between miR-221 and miR-101-1 polymorphisms and their expressions and the early prediction of HCC in HCV infected patients. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was done to estimate the expression levels of miRNA-221 and miRNA-101-1 in serum. To detect the genotyping of miR-221 and miR-101-1 related SNPs, DNA was extracted. Then, genotyping was performed using real-time PCR.

RESULTS

We found that rs7536540 polymorphism in miR-101-1 is significantly associated with development of HCC. In addition, our results showed no significant association between rs17084733 polymorphism in miR-221 and HCC occurrence. We confirmed the upregulation of miR-221 and the downregulation of miR-101-1 in HCC. As regards HCV patients, miR-221and miR-101-1 were found to be upregulated.

CONCLUSION

Both miR-221 and miR-101-1 expression levels may be useful as noninvasive diagnostic biomarkers for early prediction of HCC among HCV patients.