miR-181b potential biomarker of replication, progression in chronic HBV
Published on June 1, 2015 at 5:15 PM · No Comments
By Shreeya Nanda, Senior medwireNews Reporter
A Chinese team reports a correlation between serum levels of microRNA (miR)-181b and hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection.
Researchers Peihong Dong and Jianjian Zheng, from The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University in Zhejiang, and study co-authors say that their findings “support the development of serum miR-181b as a marker for disease progression” in this patient population.
They explain in Digestive Diseases and Sciences that miR-181b was the focus of the study “owing to its pro-fibrosis ability, as well as the earlier finding that serum levels may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for cirrhosis.”
Serum levels of miR-181b were significantly higher in the 64 chronic HBV patients than in the 72 healthy controls, at a median of 2.550 versus 0.920 (p<0.0001).
There was also a correlation with HBV DNA replication – patients positive for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) had significantly elevated serum miR-181b levels compared with HBeAg-negative patients (2.905 vs 2.315; p<0.0001). As did participants with liver HBV DNA levels above compared with below the threshold of 2.282 IU/cell (3.570 vs 2.295; p<0.0001).
Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that serum miR-181b levels were significantly associated with a histological activity index over 8 (p=0.009) and a fibrosis score over 4 (p=0.001), “highlighting its potential as an independent predictor of moderate and severe [chronic hepatitis B] disease”, say the researchers.
“This may be explained by the fact that higher serum miR-181b levels are induced at higher levels of HBV DNA, which is often associated with more severe liver disease”, they add.
Highlighting the small sample size of their study, the team concludes: “Studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to validate the efficacy of this marker and determine the relationship between serum miR-181b and patient immune status.”
也有人对HBV DNA复制的相关性 - 阳性患者乙肝e抗原（HBeAg）有显著升高血清中的miR-181b的水平与HBeAg阴性患者相比（2.905 VS 2.315，P <0.0001）。象参与者肝脏HBV DNA水平以上低于2.282国际单位/细胞的阈值进行比较（3.570 VS 2.295; P <0.0001）。