LncRNA-miRNA crosstalk in HCC cases on top of HCV infection

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) continues to be a serious issue because of its high morbidity and mortality in the absence of early identification and proper treatment. Increasing evidence reveals that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and micro RNAS (miRNAs) interact to form a gene regulatory network. Their interactions lead to a variety of complex diseases, such as HCC. So, the current study aims to assess whether the interaction between "HOTAIR, HOTTIP, and H19 as lncRNAs and miRNA-152 as a miRNA" has a significant role in the progression of HCV-genotype (4) patients to hepatocellular carcinoma, in order to employ them as noninvasive prognostic and diagnostic epigenetic biomarkers. By using the online computational tools, we predict the group of miRNAs that may interact with the group of lncRNAs under this investigation. 133 subjects were included in this study. A total of 103 chronic hepatitis C patients were divided into two groups: Group I (chronic liver disease “CLD” without HCC, n = 65) was classified into two subgroups: non-cirrhotic (30) and cirrhotic (35); Group II (CLD with HCC, n = 38). A control (healthy volunteer, n = 30). The expressions of the studied genes were analysed by real-time PCR. The study of lncRNAs has shown a consistent reverse correlation with miRNA-152 in line with the progression of the disease, which leads us to suggest that they should be used as noninvasive prognostic biomarkers for HCV-induced liver cirrhosis and HCC in HCV Genotype 4 patients. MiRNA-152 is not the only one that can interact with the lncRNAs that have been investigated, but there are others, such as miRNA-19a and miRNA-106a, that should be considered.