Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2020; 12(4): 383-393
Published online Apr 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i4.383
Potential microRNA panel for the diagnosis and prediction of overall survival of hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatitis B virus infection
Qi Zhang, Hai-Feng Xu, Wen-Yue Song, Peng-Jun Zhang, Yong-Bo Song
Qi Zhang, Wen-Yue Song, Yong-Bo Song, School of Life Science and Biopharmaceutics, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China
Hai-Feng Xu, Peng-Jun Zhang, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Interventional Therapy Department, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Beijing 100142, China
Author contributions: Zhang Q, Xu HF, Song YB and Zhang PJ designed the study; Zhang Q performed the research; Xu HF and Song WY analyzed the data; Zhang Q and Xu HF wrote the paper; Song YB and Zhang PJ revised the manuscript for final submission; Zhang Q and Xu HF contributed equally to this study; Song YB and Zhang PJ are the co-corresponding authors.
Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, No. 2016YFC0106604.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute review board. All study participants or their legal guardian provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that we have no financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work and that there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in or the review of the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Yong-Bo Song, PharmD, Associate Professor, School of Life Science and Biopharmaceutics, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, No. 103 Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China. songyongbo@syphu.edu.cn
Received: December 22, 2019
Peer-review started: December 22, 2019
First decision: January 19, 2020
Revised: February 6, 2020
Accepted: March 23, 2020
Article in press: March 23, 2020
Published online: April 15, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), abnormal expression of multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) has been shown to be involved in the malignant biological behavior of liver cancer. The vast majority of liver cancer cases in China are closely related to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but there are few studies on the changes of miRNA expression in the progression from HBV infection to hepatoma.

AIM

To explore the role of miRNAs in the progression of HBV infection to cirrhosis and even to liver cancer.

METHODS

We screened differentially expressed miRNAs in 40 HBV cirrhosis, 40 normal and 15 HCC tissues by using a TaqMan Low Density Array and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. To evaluate the power of the selected miRNAs to predict disease, we calculated the area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curves. The overall survival of HBV cirrhosis patients was analyzed via Kaplan-Meier analysis.

RESULTS

The levels of miR-375, miR-122 and miR-143 were significantly lower in HBV cirrhosis tissues, while miR-224 was significantly higher than in the controls (P < 0.0001). The area under the curves of the receiver-operating-characteristic curve for the 4-miRNA panel was 0.991 (95%CI: 0.974-1). Patients with a lower expression level of miR-224 or higher expression levels of miR-375, miR-122 and miR-143 had longer overall survival.

CONCLUSION

The four miRNAs (miR-375, miR-122, miR-143 and miR-224) may be helpful for early diagnosis of HBV infection, HBV cirrhosis, and prediction of its overall survival.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus infection, Hepatocellular carcinoma, MicroRNAs, Cirrhosis, Biomarker, Tissue

Core tip: Abnormal expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) may lead to an abnormal physiological state and disease, such as, kinds of cancers. We detect the levels of miR-375, miR-122, miR-143 and miR-224. By combination of the miRNA panels, the area under the curves of the receiver-operating-characteristic curve was 0.991. In addition, the four miRNAs (miR-375, miR-122, miR-143 and miR-224) may be helpful for early detection and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.