Role of Micro RNA-148a (miR-148a) as an Early Diagnostic Biomarker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Egyptian Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a difficult disease to diagnose in its early stages. It has a high mortality rate due to its dismal prognosis. MiRNAs are dysregulated in HCC, rendering them a promising marker of the disease's progress and outcome. Objective The purpose of this study was to look at the potential use of miR-148a as a non-invasive biomarker detection and prognosis of HCC. Subjects and methods This case-control study was applied on (64) subjects, divided into three groups: the first group (HCC patients “n = 34”); the second group (HCV patients “n = 20”) and the third group (control group “n = 10”). miR-148a expression was estimated by quantitative real time PCR. miR-148a expression was recorded and studied with the clinical parameters of each group. Results There was a highly statistically significant difference between three groups in terms of AFP, AST, ALT, Hb, and, platelets (p < 0.001); 82.4 percent of HCC patients tested positive for HCV and 50% tested positive for vascular invasion. T2 and T4 tumors were found in less than half of patients; TNM stage III was found in 50% of HCC patients and the majority of HCC patients (76.5%) had a tumor size of ≤ 5 cm. There was a significant statistical difference between groups in terms of miR148a expression (P < 0.05) with the lowest value in the HCC patients. In the HCC group, there was a negative correlation between serum miR-148a and AFP (p = 0.031), tumor size (p = 0.018), primary tumor (T) (p = 0.022), and TNM staging (p = 0.009). Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curves showed that the best cut off value for early prediction of HCC using miR-148a was ≤ 7.331, with sensitivity of 82.4 percent and specificity of 80 percent in HCC. In addition, there was statistically significant difference between the HCC and HCV & control group, according to cut-off of miR148a (P < 0.001). Conclusion miR-148a was found to be down regulated in HCC patients; our findings suggested that it could be utilized as a non-invasive biological marker for HCC detection and prediction of the prognosis.