Immunotherapy: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2471-9552
ISSN: 2471-9552
Reham Abel Haleem Abo Elwafa, Reem Abdel Hamid Harfoush, Marwa Ahmed Meheissen, Doaa Ahmed Elwazzan
Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Faculty of Medicine, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Immunotherapy (Los Angel)
The discovery of miRNAs circulating in the peripheral blood has opened new directions of research to identify new noninvasive markers for diagnosis of diseases. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression levels of circulating plasma miRNAs (miRNA-21 & miRNA-122) in Egyptian patients with chronic uncomplicated and complicated HCV. Patients & Methods: This study was conducted on 60 Chronic HCV infected patients. Patients were divided into three groups (20 patients each): uncomplicated HCV, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). All patients were subjected to laboratory investigations including complete blood picture, liver function tests. Expression levels of miRNA-21 and -122 in plasma using RT-PCR were determined. Results: MiRNA-21showed significant fold increase in chronic uncomplicated HCV while significant fold decrease in cirrhotic and HCC groups (P = 0.036). On the other hand, miRNA-122 showed significant fold elevation in both chronic uncomplicated and cirrhotic groups and significant fold decrease in HCC group (P = 0.005). ROC curve analysis for miRNA-122 yielded 68.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the differentiation of HCC patients from non-HCC at a cutoff 0.184. Neither miRNA-21 nor miRNA-122 was a successful predictor for HCC diagnosis. Conclusion: MiRNA-122 can be used as novel non-invasive biomarker for monitoring HCV related disease progression.
Email: rehamhalem@hotmail.com