Serum MicroRNA profiles in chronic hepatitis C Egyptian patients before and after combined sofosbuvir and daclatasvir treatment.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miR) are small sequence of nucleotides that can affect multiple genes involved in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) life cycle and disease development. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the clinical significance of serum microRNA profiles in a cohort of Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection before and after combined sofosbuvir and daclatasvir treatment, as well as to gain a better understanding of the exact interaction mechanism in HCV transcriptional activity via differentially expressed miRNAs. For 12 weeks, 50 patients were eligible for and received sofosbuvir (400 mg daily) and daclatasvir (60 mg daily) treatment. Each patient's blood was obtained twice: once before therapy began and again three months afterwards. RESULTS: The current study found that serum levels of circulating miR-122, miR-221, miR-23a, miR-125, miR-217, miR-224, and miR-181a were high in HCV pre-treatment patients, but after 12 weeks of direct-acting antiviral (DAAs) treatment, there was a statistically significant reduction in expression levels of miR-122, miR-221, miR-23a, miR-125, miR-217, and miR-224 (p < 0.001). There is no statistical significance for miR-181a. CONCLUSION: The key differentially expressed microRNAs before and after the direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimen were connected to the dynamics of chronic HCV infection, suggesting their potential as predictive biomarkers for HCV clearance after sofosbuvir and daclatasvir therapy.

Cyclooxygenase-2 expression is associated with elevated aspartate aminotransferase level in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), the inducible rate-limiting enzyme of prostaglandins biosynthesis, is involved in the pathogenesis of many chronic inflammation-related human malignancies including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its clinical significance in HCC remains obscure. The aim of our study was to evaluate COX-2 expression in HCC and correlate its expression to both clinicopathological parameters and patients survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was conducted on 17 HCC and 21 adjacent nontumor liver tissues obtained from 22 HCC patients underwent hepatectomy. Eight normal liver tissues taken from normal donors and HepG2 cells were used as controls. Total RNA was extracted and COX-2 mRNA was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and correlated to the clinicopathological criteria and to patient's survival. RESULTS: COX-2 mRNA was detected in 58.8% of the HCC tissues and in 28.6% of the adjacent nontumor liver tissues. COX-2 expression was significantly associated with elevated levels of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) with high specificity for disease detection. There was no significance between COX-2 expression and any of the histopathological criteria. CONCLUSIONS: COX-2 expression may be involved in HCC carcinogenesis with high specificity for disease detection. COX-2 expression is significantly associated with elevated AST levels indicating a mechanism that may correlate both markers. However COX-2 expression seems to be an independent factor with no correlation to any of the histopathological data or patient's survival.