Abstract:

Objective To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of miR-9 and miR-195-3p for primary hepatic carcinoma （PHC）， and the changes in miR-9 and miR-195-3p levels after interventional therapy. Methods A total of 123 cases of PHC patients and 30 cases of liver cirrhosis patients attending Tangshan People's Hospital from May 2019 to May 2020 were selected as the PHC group and the liver cirrhosis group， respectively， and 50 people who were physically healthy during the same period were selected as the healthy group. Serum miR-9 and miR-195-3p levels were detected by real-time quantitative PCR. The relationship between serum miR-9 and miR-195-3p levels and clinical-pathological characteristics of PHC patients was analyzed. Receiver operator characteristic （ROC） curve was applied to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of miR-9 and miR-195-3p for PHC. The changes in serum miR-9 and miR-195-3p levels in PHC patients before and after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization（TACE） were compared. Results There were statistically significant differences in serum miR-9 （0.99±0.10， 1.31±0.28， 1.68±0.43） and miR-195-3p （0.97±0.10， 0.83±0.22， 0.63±0.18） levels among the healthy group， liver cirrhosis group， and PHC group （F=69.78， P<0.001； F=74.82， P<0.001）， with serum miR-9 levels increased successively and miR-195-3p levels decreased successively among the three groups （all P<0.05）. There were statistically significant differences in serum miR-9 （t=7.45， P<0.001； t=5.32， P<0.001； t=4.96， P<0.001）and miR-195-3p （t=16.17， P<0.001； t=4.21， P<0.001； t=7.53， P<0.001） levels in PHC patients with different maximum diameters of tumor， clinical stages and degrees of differentiation. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve （AUC） for the combined differential diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and PHC by serum miR-9 and miR-195-3p testing was 0.919， which was higher than the AUC for the differential diagnosis of serum miR-9 （AUC： 0.712， Z=4.38， P<0.001） and miR-195-3p （AUC： 0.844， Z=2.04， P=0.042） alone. After TACE treatment， serum miR-9 levels decreased （1.39±0.21 vs. 1.68±0.43， t=14.22， P<0.001） and miR-195-3p levels increased （0.78±0.22 vs. 0.63±0.18， t=14.84， P<0.001） in patients compared to pre-treatment levels. Conclusion Serum miR-9 level is increased and miR-195-3p level is decreased in patients with PHC compared with patients with liver cirrhosis and healthy subjects， and the combination of the two has high differential diagnostic efficacy for liver cirrhosis and PHC. After TACE treatment， serum miR-9 level is decreased and miR-195-3p level is increased in PHC patients.

Key words: Liver neoplasms, Chemoembolization， therapeutic, miR-9, miR-195-3p