Abstract 1011: Hsa_circ_0116796 as a novel biomarker for predicting prognosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. It lacks sufficient diagnostic and prognostic markers, which leads to a poor prognosis. The survival rate of HCC patients is still low due to its highly metastatic nature. According to recent studies, non-coding RNAs play a vital role in cancer pathogenesis and may be a new diagnostic target for HCC. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA with a closed loop structure formed by mRNA back-splicing. Its functions are miRNA sponging, translating to proteins and gene regulation. Recently, it has been found that circRNAs play a potential role at angiogenesis, metastasis, and drug resistance in many types of cancers. Thus, we aim to investigate the clinical relevance of hsa_circ_0116796 in HCC.Total RNAs from 100 pairs of HCC and corresponding normal liver (NL) tissues with different stages were extracted using QIAzol. CircRNA primers were coded including the gap junction for specificity. The expression levels were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and its expression was normalized with GAPDH. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between hsa_circ_0116796 expression and various clinicopathological features of HCC patients. The target miRNAs were predicted in silico analyses. We found that hsa_circ_0116796 was significantly decreased in HCC tumor tissues compared to corresponding NL tissues (P<0.001). Suppression of hsa_circ_0116796 expression was associated with HCC progression (P<0.001). Moreover, hsa_circ_0116796 expression was significantly associated with T-stage (P=0.009), TNM stage (P=0.005), BCLC stage (P=0.0132), and survival (P<0.001). We provided the novel evidence for usefulness of hsa_circ_0116796 expressions as strong potential biomarkers for diagnosis and predicting prognosis of HCC patients. Citation Format: Huiwon Do, Gyeonghwa Kim, Yu Rim Lee, Won Young Tak, Soo Young Park, Keun Hur. Hsa_circ_0116796 as a novel biomarker for predicting prognosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 1011.