Evaluating Expression Level of Mir-196b in Serum Samples of Hepatitis C Infected Individuals

Background and aim: hepatitis c (non-a, non-b hepatitis) is an infectious disease which mostly affects the liver. expression levels of micrornas in various diseases including hepatitis c are different compared to healthy individuals. studies have shown that circulating micrornas are stable molecules and can be used for diagnosis of different stages of hepatitis c. in this basic study, serum level of mir-196b in hepatitis c infected individuals was compared to healthy individuals so in case of observing changes in expression level of this microrna, further studies will be carried out on role of this microrna in this disease.methods: we used 106 serum samples of hepatitis c infected individuals and 106 serum samples of healthy individuals for total rna extraction and cdna synthesis. then we performed real-time pcrbased on sybr green method for evaluating the expression level of mir-196b and analyzed the results using rest 2009 v2.0.13 software.results: in comparison to healthy individuals, expression level of mir-196b in serum samples of hepatitis c infected individuals showed 8.6-fold decrease (p value < 0.001, fold change = 0.116).conclusion: based on notable decrease in expression level of mir-196b, further studies on different stages of hepatitis c for evaluating mir-196b diagnostic value, besides other micrornas that are related to the aforementioned disease, can be useful.