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. 2022 Jan-Dec:36:3946320221097832.
doi: 10.1177/03946320221097832.

Detection of exosomal miR-18a and miR-222 levels in Egyptian patients with hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Eman A Elghoroury  1 , Esmat E Abdelghaffar  1 , Eman Awadallah  1 , Solaf A Kamel  1 , Dina Kandil  1 , Eman M Hassan  1 , Mirhane Hassan  1 , Mahmoud M Kamel  2 , Mohammed M Gomaa  3 , Lamiaa A Fathalla  2
Affiliations

Detection of exosomal miR-18a and miR-222 levels in Egyptian patients with hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Eman A Elghoroury et al. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is known to be the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. For improving the prognosis as well as reducing the rate of mortality, early diagnosis of HCC is a must.

Aims: This study was conducted to assess the ability of the serum expression of exosomal miR-18a and miR-222 to differentiate and diagnose patients with HCC, patients with liver cirrhosis, and healthy controls.

Methods: This study included 51 patients with liver cirrhosis, 51 patients with HCC on top of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and 50 healthy controls.

Results: miR-18a and miR-222 were assessed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. MiR-18a and miR-222 levels were significantly higher in the liver cirrhosis and HCC groups than the control group (p ˂ 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found between patients with HCC and liver cirrhosis (p = 0.4 for miR-18a and p = 0.1 for miR-222). ROC curve analyses to evaluate the diagnostic performances of the two miRNAs as important noninvasive diagnostic markers revealed a best cutoff value of 2 for miR-18a to differentiate between liver cirrhosis, HCC, and healthy controls. And for mir-222, a cutoff value of 1.7 and 1.9 showed the highest specificity for discrimination between liver cirrhosis, HCC, and healthy controls, respectively. Moreover, logistic regression model revealed that miR-18a expression was independent predictive factor in HCC patients (p = 0.004), while miR-222 expression was independent predictive factor in liver cirrhosis patients (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: miR-18a and miR-222 were significantly discriminative markers between patients with liver cirrhosis and HCC and healthy individuals. Therefore, they have a prognostic rather than a diagnostic value. Moreover, miR-18a and miR-222 could be useful in identifying liver injuries, including fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus; hepatocellular carcinoma; miRNAs; reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Box plot of miR-18a in the studied groups. LC: Liver cirrhosis, HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Box plot of miR-222 in the studied groups. LC: Liver cirrhosis, HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve for the diagnostic potential of the differentially expressed individual and combined serum miRNAs. (a)miR-18a and (b) miR-222; in discrimination between liver cirrhosis and healthy controls. (c)miR-18a and (d) miR-222; in discrimination between HCC and healthy controls.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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