Abstract：
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly prevalent malignancy. It is a common type of cancer in Egypt due to chronic virus C infection (HCV). Currently, the frequently used lab test is serum α-fetoprotein. However, its diagnostic value is challenging due to its low sensitivity and specificity. Genetic biomarkers have recently provided new insights for cancer diagnostics. Herein, we quantified Lnc HULC and miR-122 gene expression to test their potential in diagnosis. Both biomarkers were tested in the sera of 60 HCC patients and 60 with chronic HCV using real-time RT-PCR. miR-122 was highly expressed in HCV patients with a significant difference from the HCC group (p = 0.004), which points towards its role in prognosis value as a predictor of HCC in patients with chronic HCV. HULC was more highly expressed in HCC patients than in the HCV group (p = 0.018), indicating its potential use in screening and the early diagnosis of HCC. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed their reliable sensitivity and specificity. Our results reveal that miR-122 can act as a prognostic tool for patients with chronic HCV. Furthermore, it is an early predictor of HCC. LncRNA HULC can be used as an early diagnostic tool for HCC.
摘要：
肝细胞癌（HCC）是一种非常普遍的恶性肿瘤。由于慢性C病毒感染（HCV），它是埃及常见的癌症类型。目前,常用的实验室检查是血清甲胎蛋白。然而,由于其敏感性和特异性较低,其诊断价值具有挑战性.遗传生物标志物最近为癌症诊断提供了新的见解。在这里，我们定量了LncHULC和miR-122基因表达,以测试其在诊断中的潜力.使用实时RT-PCR在60例HCC患者和60例慢性HCV患者的血清中测试了两种生物标志物。miR-122在HCV患者中高表达，与HCC组有显著差异（p=0.004），这表明它在慢性HCV患者中作为预测HCC的预后价值中的作用。HULC在HCC患者中的表达高于HCV组（p=0.018），表明其在HCC的筛查和早期诊断中的潜在用途。受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线分析显示了其可靠的灵敏度和特异性。我们的结果表明，miR-122可以作为慢性HCV患者的预后工具。此外，它是HCC的早期预测因子。LncRNAHULC可作为HCC的早期诊断工具。
