Diagnostic value of circulating miRNA-122 for hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus-associated chronic viral hepatitis

Abstract

Background: The liver-specific microRNA-122 (miR-122) has been demonstrated as a powerful and promising biomarker of hepatic diseases. However, the researches on the accuracy of miR122 detection in chronic viral hepatitis have been inconsistent, leading us to conduct this meta-analysis to systematically summarize the diagnostic value of circulating miR-122 in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV)-associated chronic viral hepatitis. Methods: A comprehensive literature search (updated to January 30, 2019) in PubMed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang, and CQVIP databases was performed to identify eligible studies. The sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC) were pooled to explore the diagnostic performance of circulating miR-122. Subgroup and threshold effect analysis were further carried out to explore the heterogeneity. Results: Overall, 15 studies were finally included in this meta-analysis according to the exclusion and inclusion criteria. The pooled estimates indicated a moderately high diagnostic accuracy for circulating miR-122, with a sensitivity of 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.86–0.95], a specificity of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.78–0.89), a PLR of 5.7 (95% CI, 4.7–8.1), a NLR of 0.1 (95% CI, 0.06–0.18), a DOR of 57 (95% CI 25-129), and an AUC of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.91–0.95). The subgroup analysis demonstrated that diagnostic accuracy was better for HCV-associated chronic viral hepatitis patients and non-Chinese compared with other subgroups. In addition, we found that serum might be a more promising matrix for detecting the expression of miR-122 than plasma. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that circulating miR-122 have a relatively high diagnostic value for chronic viral hepatitis detection, especially in the patients with HCV-associated chronic viral hepatitis. However, further large cohort studies are still required to confirm our findings.

Evaluation of MicroRNA-122 as a Biomarker for Chronic Hepatitis C Infection and as a Predictor for Treatment Response to Direct-Acting Antivirals

“…A meta-analysis carried by Zhou et al 29 demonstrated that circulating microRNA-122 achieved a sensitivity of 0.92, specificity of 0.84, and AUC=0.93, denoting average test performance for the diagnosis of chronic viral hepatitis related to HBV and HCV, and concluded that serum microRNA-122 has a comparatively high diagnostic value, especially in CHC patients. Furthermore, Butt et al 30 found that circulating microRNA-122 had a durable ability to distinguish CHC patients from healthy subjects at a cut-off value of 10.32, with 87.0% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity.…”

A study of serum miRNA-122 in hepatitis C and associated hepatocellular carcinoma

“…Не обнаружено отличий между относительными показателями miR-122 у больных ХГС с F4-фиброзом и у больных с клинически выраженным циррозом печени неинфекционной этиологии. Снижение уровня miR-122 описано также при выраженном фиброзе печени на фоне хронического гепатита В, неалкогольном стеатогепатите и аутоиммунном гепатите [9,25]. На основании этого можно утверждать, что по уровню miR-122, исследованному в динамике, можно судить о скорости прогрессирования фиброза печени.…”

Functional and Clinical Significance of Dysregulated microRNAs in Liver Cancer

“…MiR-122 is one of the most highly selected candidate miRNAs for HCC owing to its liver specificity [107]. Clinically, miR-122 plays an important role in viral liver cancer and is used to select treatment strategies based on HCV or HBV infection [108]. In addition, miR-122 aids in reducing the shortcomings of AFP detection errors caused by insufficient specificity.…”