Role of circulating miR-182 and miR-150 as biomarkers for cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma post HCV infection in Egyptian patients

In Egypt, liver diseases are exceptionally high, maintaining the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) worldwide, and increasing rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Available diagnostic methods show poor performance in early diagnosis of HCC. Definite pathogenic factors contributing in the development of HCV are still lacking. MicroRNAs have been reported as promising biomarkers for cancers diagnosis and in virus-host interaction. This study was conducted to detect the role of miR-182 and miR-150 as biomarkers for development of cirrhosis and malignant transformation in HCV infected patients. The expression of miR-182 and miR-150 was evaluated using real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) in 120 subjects: 40 HCC patients, 40 hepatitis C patients (20 cirrhotic and 20 non-cirrhotic HCV genotype 4) and 40 healthy controls. In HCC, statistically significant decrease of miR-182 and miR-150 compared to non-cirrhotic HCV patients (p = 0.015, p = 0.006 respectively) and of miR-150 compared to controls (p = 0.039). In cirrhotic HCV patients, significant down regulation of miR-182 and miR-150 compared to non-cirrhotic HCV (p = 0.003, p = 0.024 respectively). On the other hand, significant upregulation of miR-182 was observed in non-cirrhotic HCV compared to controls (p = 0.036). Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) showed sensitivity 15% for HCC diagnosis at the cut-off value of 400 ng/ml, while combining AFP with miR-182 and miR-150, resulted in improving sensitivity to (90%) and diagnostic accuracy to (80%). miR-182 and miR-150 can be used as non invasive biomarkers for HCC and combination of these miRNAs and AFP markedly improve the diagnosis of HCC. Both miR-182 and miR-150 can also be used as predictive markers for detection of cirrhosis progression in HCV infected patients.