Potential role of noninvasive biomarkers during liver fibrosis

Abstract

Various types of liver disease exist, such as hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease. These liver diseases can result in scarring of liver tissue, cirrhosis, and finally liver failure. During liver fibrosis, there is an excess and disorganized accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) components which cause the loss of normal liver cell functions. For patients with chronic liver disease, fibrosis prediction is an essential part of the assessment and management. To diagnose liver fibrosis, several invasive and noninvasive markers have been proposed. However, the adoption of invasive markers remains limited due to their inherent characteristics and poor patient acceptance rate. In contrast, noninvasive markers can expedite the clinical decision through informed judgment about disease stage and prognosis. These noninvasive markers are classified into two types: Imaging techniques and serum biomarkers. However, the diagnostic values of biomarkers associated with liver fibrosis have also been analyzed. For example, the serum levels of ECM proteins can react to either matrix accumulation or degradation. During virus-host interactions, several regulatory steps take place to control gene expression, such as the change in cellular microRNA expression profiles. MicroRNAs are a class of non-coding RNAs (18-20 long nucleotides) that function by post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Although various noninvasive markers have been suggested in recent years, certain limitations have restricted their clinical applications. Understanding the potential of non-invasive biomarkers as a therapeutic option to treat liver fibrosis is still in progress.

Biomarkers for Early Detection, Prognosis, and Therapeutics of Esophageal Cancers

“…This will bring objectiveness to the interpretation and can overcome the limitations of endoscopy for mass screening. Further, non-invasive biomarkers are not only useful in early diagnosis, but they also play a role in predicting the treatment outcome, disease progression, and relapse [ 31 , 32 ]. Although the non-invasive biomarkers from saliva and urine that can be used in clinics for early detection of ESCC and EAC are limited, the results from various studies, outlined in Table 1 , suggest that in addition to liquid biopsy, non-invasive samples such as urine and saliva may be used for detecting biomarkers in both ESCC and EAC.…”