Objective: It is reported that miRNAs play an important role in hepatocellular carcinogenesis and may serve as a non-invasive biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MiR-4510 and miR-146b-5p expression levels were found to be associated with HCC, however their associations with hepatitis B virus (HBV) related HCC (HBV-HCC) is yet to be explored. We aimed to assess the predictive value of expression levels of serum miR-4510 and miR-146b-5p in patients with HBV-HCC and performed bioinformatics analyses based on the miRNA expression profile.
Methods: This cross-sectional study used serum of 16 patients with Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB), 15 hepatitis B virus related cirrhosis (HBV-cirrhosis), 15 HBV-HCC and 16 healthy subjects. The total RNA was isolated from serum and the expression of miRNAs were measured by qRT-PCR calculated using 2-ΔΔCt methods. MIENTURNET was used to predict miRNA-target genes interactions. The Network Analyst was used to build protein-protein interaction.
Results: There was a significant difference in miR-146b-5p between study groups (P=0.009). MiR-146b-5p expression was found to be significantly reduced in HBV-HCC compared to HBV-cirrhosis group and healthy controls. (P=0.005 and P=0.006, respectively).
Conclusion: The serum miR-146b-5p levels might be a promising tool to be used as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker for HCC. Our findings shed light on potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of HBV-HCC in terms of selected miRNAs. The target pathways of miR-146b-5p identified by our in-silico analysis to reveal the functional mechanism are “MAPK signaling pathways" and "Pathways in cancer".