Lnc-TCL6 is a Potential Biomarker for Early Diagnosis and Grade in Liver Cirrhosis Patients

Abstract

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been proved to participate in the pathogenesis or as biomarkers in many diseases. The study aimed to identify some sensitive and noninvasive biomarkers for early diagnosis and grade in liver cirrhosis (LC) patients, especially in hepatitis B liver cirrhosis patients. Methods: LncRNAs were screened in whole blood samples by CapitalBiotech microarray in both healthy controls and LC patients to discover candidate biomarkers, and candidate biomarkers were subjected to training using qRT-PCR for the quantification of their expression levels in independent whole blood sample sets, including healthy controls, hepatitis B virus carriers (HBV carrier), chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and LC. Ultimately, an excellent biomarker was validated by Mann-Whitney test and ROC analysis for LC. Findings: Lnc-TCL6 was identified as a high diagnostic accurate biomarker for LC in Child-Pugh class C patients compared to healthy controls, CHB and HBV carrier (AUC=0.719, 0.815, 0.797, respectively). Meanwhile, it showed a favorable specificities and sensitivities in Child-Pugh A, B, C grade in LC patients (AUC=0.711, 0.724, 0.837, respectively). Compared to healthy controls, the expression of Lnc-TCL6 was obviously upregulated in Child-Pugh class A (4.07±3.28 vs 2.89±3.16, P=0.014). Conversely, the Lnc-TCL6 was significantly downregulated in Child-Pugh class C patients (1.19±2.09 vs 2.89±3.16, P<0.01). Interpretation: Lnc-TCL6 is a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and grade in LC patients, and a reliable predictor for poor prognosis in Child-Pugh class C LC patients. Funding Statement: This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1501224), the Science and Technology Developmental Special Foundation of Guangdong Province (2017B020226003), the Guangzhou City Science and Technology Program (201604020118), and the Projects of Guangzhou City Health Care Collaborative Innovation (201604020002). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The protocol for this clinical trial was approved by the institutional review boards or ethics committees from our hospital and written consent for the information to be stored in the hospital database and used for research was obtained from the study participants.