Detection Of Circulating MicroRNA-196and MicroRNA-222in Patients With HCV Infection And The Initial Exploration Of Their Clinical Significance

Objective: To detect the level of circulating MiR-196and MiR-222inpatients with HCV infection. By comparing them with that of the healthycontrol group, their application value in the diagnosis of HCV infection andevaluation of disease progression was initially explored.Methods: Clinical information, laboratory data (including HCV-RNA,ALT, AST et al.) and serum samples were collected from43patients withHCV infection and22healthy controls. The serum total miRNAs wasextracted, and the levels of circulating miR-196and miR-222werequantified by realtime fluorescence quantitative PCR. The differencesbetween these two groups were preliminary analyzed.Results: The median levels of both circulating miR-196andmiR-222in patients with HCV infection were significantly lower thanthose in the healthy control group (p<0.001). ROC (Receiver-operatorcharacteristic curve) analysis demonstrated the diagnosis value of miR-196(AUC=0.849,95%CI:0.756-0.941, P<0.001) and miR-222(AUC=0.770, 95%CI：0.648-0.891, P<0.001). Spearman’s rank correlation analysisshowed that there was positive correlation between circulating miR-196and miR-222(r=0.376,P=0.003), and also there was negative correlationbetween miR-222and ALT (r=-0.261,P=0.036).Conclusions: Proper control of miRNA expression is essential formaintaining a steady state of the cellular machinery. The median expressionlevels of circulating miR-196and miR-222in patients with HCV infectionwere significantly decreased, and it is speculated that HCV infection maychange the expression of miR-196and miR-222either directly or indirectly.Circulating miR-196and miR-222can be used as helpful diagnosismarkers.