Tropical Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom, Menoufia, 32511, Egypt.
Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, National Liver Institute, Shebin El-Kom, Menoufia, Egypt.
Mol Biol Rep. 2019 Dec;46(6):5759-5765. doi: 10.1007/s11033-019-05009-w. Epub 2019 Aug 30.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious consequence of persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and represents one of the most aggressive neoplasms globally. The implication of microRNA-301 (miR-301) in the initiation and progression of different types of cancers has been proved. We aimed to assess circulating microRNA-301 as possible biomarker for the early detection of HCC in patients with chronic HCV infection. miR-301 expression levels were estimated in plasma samples of 42 patients with newly diagnosed HCV-related HCC, 48 chronically HCV infected patients with liver cirrhosis and 40 healthy individuals by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique. In comparison with chronically HCV infected patients and healthy controls, miR-301 expression levels were significantly increased in HCC patients (P < 0.001). miR-301 levels distinguished HCC patients from chronic HCV patients, with area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.89 (95% CI 0.82-0.96), the sensitivity and the specificity were 78.57% and 89.58% respectively. Moreover, miR-301 levels were significantly linked with tumor size (P = 0.014), serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (P = 0.028) and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) score (P = 0.003). These results reveal that miR-301 can serve as a promising non-invasive biomarker for diagnosis of HCC in chronically HCV infected patients.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是持续性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染的严重后果，也是全球最具侵袭性的肿瘤之一。microRNA-301（miR-301）在不同类型癌症的发生和发展中的作用已得到证实。我们旨在评估循环 microRNA-301 作为慢性 HCV 感染患者 HCC 早期检测的可能生物标志物。通过逆转录定量聚合酶链反应技术，在 42 例新诊断的 HCV 相关 HCC 患者、48 例慢性 HCV 感染伴肝硬化患者和 40 例健康个体的血浆样本中估计 miR-301 表达水平。与慢性 HCV 感染患者和健康对照组相比，HCC 患者的 miR-301 表达水平显著升高（P<0.001）。miR-301 水平可将 HCC 患者与慢性 HCV 患者区分开来，受试者工作特征曲线下面积为 0.89（95%CI 0.82-0.96），灵敏度和特异性分别为 78.57%和 89.58%。此外，miR-301 水平与肿瘤大小（P=0.014）、血清甲胎蛋白（AFP）水平（P=0.028）和巴塞罗那临床肝癌（BCLC）评分（P=0.003）显著相关。这些结果表明，miR-301 可作为慢性 HCV 感染患者 HCC 诊断的有前途的非侵入性生物标志物。
