MicroRNA-mediated interactions between host and hepatitis C virus

Table 1 Aberrant expression of representative miRNAs after hepatitis C virus infection

miRNA	Expression after HCV infection	Target	Biological process	Clinical relevance	Therapeutic strategy	Ref.
miR-200c	Up	FAP-1	Down-regulate FAP1 and subsequently activate Src kinases-mediated profibrotic signaling pathway	Promoting factor of hepatic fibrosis	Antagonist	[19]
miR-221/222	Up	CDKN1B	Inhibit CDKN1B expression and correlate with expression of fibrosis-related Col1A1 and α-SMA	New marker for stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis progression	Antagonist	[20]
miR-29	Down	COL1A1,COL3A1	Decrease collagen synthesis and thus suppress fibrosis progression	Therapeutic and diagnosis biomarker of liver fibrosis	Mimic	[21,22]
miR-449a	Down	NOTCH1	Repress YKL40 expression by targeting components of NOTCH signaling pathway and then inhibit liver fibrosis	Negative correlation with HCV-induced liver inflammation and fibrosis	Mimic	[23]
miR-21	Up	SMAD7	Enhance TGF-β-mediated fibrosis	Positive correlation with fibrotic stage	Antagonist	[24]
miR-122	Down	HCV RNA, Bach1/HO-1	Directly promote HCV replication and translation; Enhance HCV replication indirectly through Bach1/HO-1	Inverse correlation with fibrosis stages	Antagonist	[24]
miR-199a/b-3p	Down	PAK4, c-Met, mTOR	Suppress HCC growth through inhibiting PAK4/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway or HCC cell cycle progression	Potential diagnostic/prognostic marker and therapeutic target in HCC	Mimic	[29-31]
miR-196	Down	Bach1, HCV RNA	Inhibit HCV replication directly by targeting HCV NS5A and indirectly through Bach1 mRNA suppression	Potential predictive/prognostic factor in HCV infection	Mimic	[36,68,73]
miR-20a	Up	-	-	Predictive biomarker in HCV-mediated early to late stage fibrosis	-	[69]
miR-618	Up	LPR12	Suppress LPR12 and lead to progression of HCC	Promising biomarker for early detection of HCC among high-risk HCV-positive population	-	[70]
miR-650	Down	TRAF4	Down-regulate tumorigenesis-associated TRAF4	Promising biomarker for the early detection of HCC among high-risk HCV-positive population	-	[70]
miR-155	Up	APC	Promote hepatocarcinogenesis by activating Wnt signaling pathway	Negative predictive/prognostic marker and therapeutic target in HCV infection	Antagonist	[71-74]

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; HCV: Hepatitis C virus.