Sagnelli E, Potenza N, Onorato L, Sagnelli C, Coppola N, Russo A. Micro-RNAs in hepatitis B virus-related chronic liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Hepatol 2018; 10(9): 558-570 [PMID: 30310534 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i9.558]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Evangelista Sagnelli, MD, Full Professor, Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via: L. Armanni 5, Naples 80135, Italy. evangelista.sagnelli@unicampania.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Evangelista Sagnelli, Lorenzo Onorato, Caterina Sagnelli, Nicola Coppola, Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples 80135, Italy
Nicoletta Potenza, Aniello Russo, DISTABIF, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples 80100, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to this paper with the conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Evangelista Sagnelli, MD, Full Professor, Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via: L. Armanni 5, Naples 80135, Italy. evangelista.sagnelli@unicampania.it
Telephone: +39-81-5666719 Fax: +39-81-5666207
Received: March 25, 2018 Peer-review started: March 28, 2018 First decision: April 19, 2018 Revised: April 24, 2018 Accepted: May 30, 2018 Article in press: May 30, 2018 Published online: September 27, 2018
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by affecting both the stability and translation of complementary mRNAs. Several studies have shown that miRNAs are important regulators in the conflicting efforts between the virus (to manipulate the host for its successful propagation) and the host (to inhibit the virus), culminating in either the elimination of the virus or its persistence. An increasing number of studies report a role of miRNAs in hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication and pathogenesis. In fact, HBV is able to modulate different host miRNAs, particularly through the transcriptional transactivator HBx protein and, conversely, different cellular miRNAs can regulate HBV gene expression and replication by a direct binding to HBV transcripts or indirectly targeting host factors. The present review will discuss the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of HBV-related diseases and their role as a biomarker in the management of patients with HBV-related disease and as therapeutic targets.
Core tip: This review article will focus on the emerging puzzle of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-hepatocyte interaction via miRNAs, indirectly or directly modulating HBV replication and pathogenesis, and thus on the role of microRNAs in the natural history of HBV infection. We evaluated the literature on their possible future role as a biomarker in the management of patients with HBV-related disease and as therapeutic targets.
