miR-506-3p can inhibit cell proliferation and is a diagnostic and prognostic marker of liver cancer.

BACKGROUND

At the time of diagnosis, most patients with liver cancer (LC) are at advanced stage, which increases the difficulty of treatment. MiR-506-3p is considered an anti-oncogene in a wide spectrum of malignancies. This investigation aims to determine the clinical implications of miR-506-3p in diagnosis and prognosis of LC.

METHODS

The expression of miR-506-3p in tissues and serum samples of 92 LC patients was detected using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and the connection between serum miR-506-3p and pathologic features of LC patients was analyzed. The diagnostic efficacy of miR-506-3p in LC was visualized by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, its prognostic implications in LC were confirmed by follow-up, and its impact on LC cell proliferation was analyzed by CCK-8 assay.

RESULTS

miR-506-3p was lowly expressed in LC tissues and serum samples. Reduced serum miR-506-3p expression indicated larger tumor size, higher TNM stage, and poorer differentiation degree in LC patients. The area under the curve (AUC) of serum miR-506-3p in diagnosing LC was 0.911, and for distinguishing tumor size, TNM stage and pathologic differentiation degree, AUC was 0.751, 0.825 and 0.777, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated decreased overall survival in patients presenting with reduced serum miR-506-3p. Cox proportional hazards regression model analysis revealed that TNM staging and low serum miR-506-3p expression were independent prognostic factors in patients with LC. experiments identified that the proliferation of LC cells decreased significantly following miR-506-3p up-regulation.

CONCLUSION

miR-506-3p, capable of inhibiting LC cell proliferation, is a possible diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of LC.