Abstract
We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Highly Upregulated in Liver Cancer (HULC) and microRNA-372 (miR-372) as biochemical markers in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and HCV-infected patients. The present study was conducted on 100 Egyptian individuals divided into 3 groups, 40 patients with HCC and HCV infection, 40 patients only HCV-infected, and 20 individuals as normal controls. They were subject to full history taking, full clinical and laboratory examination, and assessment of HULC and miR-372 levels by real-time PCR. A statistically significant difference was found with p< 0.05 between HCC and each of HCV and control groups as regards HULC level with high mean among HCC followed by HCV patients. Our results also show a statistically significant difference with p< 0.05 between each of HCC and HCV compared to control as regards miR-372 level with low mean among HCC patients. HULC could be considered as a potential non-invasive marker for detection and early diagnosis of HCC. Also, it may play an important role in the early prophylaxis and control measures to reduce the incidence of HCC. However, miR-372 cannot be considered as a reliable marker as HULC for early detection of HCC especially in HCV patients.
Highlights
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a significant clinical problem, being the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world [1]
Targeting to refine HCC risk, scientists started to study the role of molecular biomarkers which allow objective stratification of risk and help in individualized therapy and surveillance for HCV individuals
Molecular biomarker-based stratification plays an important role in HCC chemoprevention clinical trials, saves us time and costs and allows a smaller sample size [10]
Summary
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a significant clinical problem, being the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world [1]. LncRNAs are non-coding RNAs with more than 200 nucleotides in length, which play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Highly Upregulated in Liver Cancer (HULC) and microRNA-372 (miR-372) as biochemical markers in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and HCV-infected patients. Methods: The present study was conducted on 100 Egyptian individuals divided into 3 groups, 40 patients with HCC and HCV infection, 40 patients only HCV-infected, and 20 individuals as normal controls They were subject to full history taking, full clinical and laboratory examination, and assessment of HULC and miR-372 levels by real-time PCR. It may play an important role in the early prophylaxis and control measures to reduce the incidence of HCC. MiR-372 cannot be considered as a reliable marker as HULC for early detection of HCC especially in HCV patients
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