The Connection between MiR-122 and Lymphocytes in Patients Receiving Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Abstract

New molecular predictors for the response to treatment in HBV (hepatitis B virus) infection are assessed. Among them is miR-122. Our article searches the connection between miR-122 and the counts of lymphocytes in chronic HBV patients receiving treatment. We included the sera of 38 Romanian subjects with chronic HBV infection (20 receiving treatment and 18 not receiving treatment) and 5 healthy controls. The expression of miR-122 was determined using RT-PCR (real-time PCR) and a 2^-ΔΔCT method. Two systematic analyses were also performed on databases (PUBMED, Web of Science, and Science Direct), eliminating systematic reviews, editorials, letters to editors, meta-analyses, reviews, conference proceedings, or pre-print manuscripts. We included human-based articles following the PRISMA criteria and the Newcastle Ottawa Assessment Scale for Case-Control and Cohort studies. R 4.2.2 was used for statistics, and MIENTURNET and STRING were used for the bioinformatic analysis. Our results showed a link between the variations in the expression of miR-122 and the counts of lymphocytes in HBV Romanian patients receiving therapy. Treatment influenced miR-122 and the lymphocyte numbers. This is the first study with these results, and it may lead to a new perspective on the inter-relationships between microRNAs and therapy in HBV patients.

Keywords: HBV (hepatitis B virus) treatment; hepatitis B virus; lymphocyte; miR-122.

Figure 1

The design of this study.

Figure 2

The selection diagram of the studies (adapted from the 2020 PRISMA Statement [32]).

Figure 3

The microRNA-gene network relationship based on MIENTURNET analysis (http://userver.bio.uniroma1.it/apps/mienturnet, accessed on 2 May 2023) [34].

Figure 4

A STRING network (https://string-db.org, accessed on 1 August 2023) [35] depicting the relationship between the proteins encoded by the genes retrieved from MIENTURNET analysis (http://userver.bio.uniroma1.it/apps/mienturnet, accessed on 2 May 2023) [34]. The nodes coloured in the same colour belong to the same main cluster. The lines between the nodes show the high and the low connections between the proteins (high connections are shown with intense contoured lines, while low connections are shown with faint lines; high and low connections were established after the strength of the retrieved results). The dotted lines show the borders of the clusters that could be drawn from the connections between the proteins.

Figure 5

The selection diagram of the studies (adapted from the 2020 PRISMA Statement [32].