Abstract
Introduction. Hepatitis C virus (genotype-3) causes acute and chronic hepatitis infection predomination in India. The infectious phase of the virus requires various host factors for its survival and subsequent viral particle production. Small RNA molecules like microRNA-122 (miR-122) are one such factor mostly present in the liver and play a supportive role in viral replication. Objective. In this study, diagnostic potential of miR-122 is evaluated in the sera of chronic hepatitis C patients. Methods. miRNAs were isolated from the sera samples of patients as well as controls and miR-122 expression was quantified by real-time PCR. Results. A significant augmentation was observed in the level of circulating miR-122 (median level, 0.66 versus 0.29, P = 0.001) in patients compared to controls with ROC value of 0.929 ± 0.034 (P < 0.001). Interestingly, miR-122 level also depicted a significant positive correlation with serum ALT (r = 0.53), AST (r = 0.44), and viral load (r = 0.52). Conclusion. The study thus unveiled the role of miR-122 as a plausible diagnostic biomarker during HCV genotype-3 infection in India.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus causes acute and chronic hepatitis infection predomination in India
The pathogenic impact of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) on the human liver is determined by the routine liver function test (LFTs) with alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) level
We investigated the correlation between miR-122 expression and HCV viral load in the patient’s sera
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (genotype-3) causes acute and chronic hepatitis infection predomination in India. Diagnostic potential of miR-122 is evaluated in the sera of chronic hepatitis C patients. MiR-122 level depicted a significant positive correlation with serum ALT (r = 0.53), AST (r = 0.44), and viral load (r = 0.52). The study unveiled the role of miR-122 as a plausible diagnostic biomarker during HCV genotype-3 infection in India. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection, which infects approximately 3% of the world population [1]. HCV is a positive stranded RNA virus with a genome size of 9.6 Kb that frequently replicates and survives in the liver tissue. Dufour et al observed a normal ALT level usually in one-third of hepatitis C virus infected patients [6]. Uncertain behavior of these enzymes reduces their prognostic potential in case of HCV infection
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