Investigating circulatory microRNA expression profiles in Egyptian patients infected with hepatitis C virus mediated hepatic disorders

Abstract

Background & aimCirculatory miRNAs have emerged as promising non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis of various disease stages. In this study, we investigated expression profiles for circulatory miRNAs (21, 122 and 155) in Egyptian patients with HCV mediated hepatic disorders. MethodsExpression profiles were assessed in plasma of 40 healthy subjects, 37 chronic HCV (CHC), 39 cirrhotic and 40 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients using RT-PCR. ResultsmiR-21 and miR-122 levels were significantly up-regulated in HCC in comparison to all other groups with log2 values of 5.45 and 6 respectively. There was also significant difference in miR-21 expression between HCC and cirrhotic group (P < 0.0001) (AUC = 0.767). Logistic regression (LR) analysis revealed that combining miR-122 and miR-21 to differentiate cirrhotic from HCC subjects would relatively increase the AUC to 0.809 (P < 0.0001). Moreover, combining three miRNAs into one panel may have a promising diagnostic potential to differentiate healthy individuals from cirrhotic subjects with an AUC of value 0.922 (P = 0.0007). ConclusionsmiR-122 can be utilized as standalone biomarkers or combined in a panel for enhancing diagnostic precision. Additionally, plasma miR-21 is useful particularly in monitoring cirrhosis progression into HCC meanwhile miR-155 seems not to be ideal if used alone among Egyptian patients.