Circulating microRNA, miR-122 and miR-221 signature in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C related hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aim: To explore the potential usefulness of serum miR-122 and miR-221 as non-invasive diagnostic markers of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 90 adult patients of both sex with HCV-related chronic liver disease and chronic hepatitis C related HCC. In addition to the 10 healthy control individuals, patients were stratified into; interferon-naïve chronic hepatitis C (CH) (n = 30), post-hepatitis C compensated cirrhosis (LC) (n = 30) and treatment-naïve HCC (n = 30). All patients and controls underwent full clinical assessment and laboratory investigations in addition to the evaluation of the level of serum miRNA expression by RT-PCR.

Results: There was a significant fold change in serum miRNA expression in the different patient groups when compared to normal controls; miR-122 showed significant fold increasing in both CH and HCC and significant fold decrease in LC. On the other hand, miR-221 showed significant fold elevation in both CH and LC groups and significant fold decrease in HCC group (P = 0.01). Comparing fold changes in miRNAs in HCC group vs non HCC group (CH and Cirrhosis), there was non-significant fold elevation in miR-122 (P = 0.21) and significant fold decreasing in miR-221 in HCC vs non-HCC (P = 0.03). ROC curve analysis for miR-221 yielded 87% sensitivity and 40% specificity for the differentiation of HCC patients from non-HCC at a cutoff 1.82.

Conclusion: Serum miR-221 has a strong potential to serve as one of the novel non-invasive biomarkers of HCC.