Detection of miR-122 by fluorescence real-time PCR in blood from patients with chronic hepatitis B and C infections.
BACKGROUND
This study aims to determine whether relative miR-122 levels in peripheral blood are correlated with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and chronic hepatitis C (CHC) virus infection and viral replication to determine whether miR-122 can be a new marker for liver injury.


METHODS
MicroRNA (miRNA) was extracted from the peripheral blood of 20 CHB patients, 20 CHC patients, and 20 healthy controls. The levels of miR-122 were determined using fluorescence real-time reverse transcription PCR. Then, the associations of miR-122 with CHB and CHC were analyzed, and its correlation with other markers of liver function and viral replication were determined.


RESULTS
The expression level of miR-122 in patients with CHB was significantly higher when compared to subjects in the control group (P = 0.007) or CHC patients (P = 0.005). Furthermore, the miR-122 level in patients with CHC was somewhat higher when compared to healthy controls (66% higher), but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.229). MiR-122 levels were significantly correlated with ALT (correlation coefficient [R] = 0.7, P < 0.001), AST (R = 0.71, P < 0.001), and HBV NA (R = 0.9, P < 0.001). The regression analysis indicated that the AUC of miR-122 levels in the diagnosis of CHB was 0.87, with a sensitivity of 0.8 and a specificity of 0.8.


CONCLUSION
MiR-122 can be used to distinguish healthy persons and patients with CHB infection with high sensitivity and specificity. These present findings presented that the complex and context-specific associations of miR-122 with liver diseases, suggesting that this may be a promising marker for liver injury.
['Ma|Zhen-Hua|ZH|', 'Sun|Cheng-Xue|CX|', 'Shi|Hong|H|', 'Fan|Jian-Hua|JH|', 'Song|Yu-Guo|YG|', 'Cong|Pei-Jun|PJ|', 'Kong|Xiang-Min|XM|', 'Hao|Da-Lin|DL|']
D000328:Adult D005453:Fluorescence D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic D006801:Humans D035683:MicroRNAs D008875:Middle Aged D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
miR-122 Fluorescence real-time PCR Chronic hepatitis B Chronic hepatitis C