Potential microRNA panel for the diagnosis and prediction of overall survival of hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatitis B virus infection

BACKGROUND: In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), abnormal expression of multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) has been shown to be involved in the malignant biological behavior of liver cancer. The vast majority of liver cancer cases in China are closely related to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, but there are few studies on the changes of miRNA expression in the progression from HBV infection to hepatoma. AIM: To explore the role of miRNAs in the progression of HBV infection to cirrhosis and even to liver cancer. METHODS: We screened differentially expressed miRNAs in 40 HBV cirrhosis, 40 normal and 15 HCC tissues by using a TaqMan Low Density Array and real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. To evaluate the power of the selected miRNAs to predict disease, we calculated the area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curves. The overall survival of HBV cirrhosis patients was analyzed via Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS: The levels of miR-375, miR-122 and miR-143 were significantly lower in HBV cirrhosis tissues, while miR-224 was significantly higher than in the controls (P < 0.0001). The area under the curves of the receiver-operating-characteristic curve for the 4-miRNA panel was 0.991 (95%CI: 0.974-1). Patients with a lower expression level of miR-224 or higher expression levels of miR-375, miR-122 and miR-143 had longer overall survival. CONCLUSION: The four miRNAs (miR-375, miR-122, miR-143 and miR-224) may be helpful for early diagnosis of HBV infection, HBV cirrhosis, and prediction of its overall survival.