circulating microrna-122 as a potential biomarker for hepatitis c virus induced hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: the microrna (mirna) mediated translational repression can cause various diseases in humans. the liver-specific mirna (microrna-122 (mir-122)) is primarily involved in tissue tropism during hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection which ultimately leads to hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). objectives: this study focuses on evaluating host serum mir-122 as a prognostic marker in hcv-induced hepatocellular carcinoma. methods: evaluation of mir-122 expression was carried out by quantitative real time pcr. results: positive expression of mir-122 was observed in patients with chronic hepatitis c (chc) followed by hcc patients compared to healthy controls. a difference in median levels of the mir-122 expression in chc and hcc patients (p < 0.000) was found in contrast to cirrhosis patients (p = 0.511). the serum mir-122 expression was found threefold higher in liver cirrhosis patients than chronic hepatitis. further, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (auroc) analysis of mir-122 expression profile can efficiently distinguish chc patients (auroc = 0.978, p = 0.000, 95% confidence interval (ci) = 0.958 to 0.998) and hcc from healthy controls (auroc= 0.971, p = 0.000, 95% ci = 0.944 to 0.997). moreover, receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve analysis significantly distinguished betweenchcpatients from cirrhosis patients (auroc = 0.955, p = 0.000, 95% ci = 0.925 to 0.986) but not chc from hcc patients (auroc = 0.584, p = 0.104, 95% ci = 0.485 to 0.684). this study revealed a substantial correlation of mir-122 with hcv viral load (r = 0.56, p = 0.000), alt (r = 0.67, p = 0.000) and ast (r = 0.65, p = 0.000) levels. conclusions: serum mir-122 can potentially serve as a promising prognostic tool for hcv induced hcc.