Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Interestingly, lncRNA-H19 acts independently in HCC and influences miR-675 expressions. We aimed to assess the potential utility of tissue lncRNA-H19 versus miR-675 expressions as a non-invasive biomarker for HCC diagnosis and prognosis in Egyptian patients. Ninety-one HCC patients and 91 controls included in this study were investigated for expression of lncRNA-H19 and miR675 using RT-qPCR. Our results showed that the expression of lncRNA-H19 and microRNA-675 were higher in patients than in controls (p < 0.001 for both). Additionally, lncRNA-H19 expression was higher in tumorous than in non-tumorous tissue (p < 0.001). Linear regression revealed that miR-675 expression was a significantly higher positive predictor than lncRNA-H19 for tumor size, pathologic grade, and AFP level; similarly, for cyclin D1 and VEGF protein expression. By using the ROC curve, the sensitivity of miR-675 was higher than lncRNA-H19 for discriminating HCC from controls (95-89%, respectively) and the sensitivity of lncRNA-H19 was higher in tumorous than in non-tumorous tissues (76%). The high expressions of both were associated with low OS (p < 0.001, 0.001, respectively). Oncofetal H19-derived miR-675 expression could be considered a potential noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarker, outstanding the performance of the expression of tissue lncRNA-H19 for HCC.
Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); long noncoding RNA-H19 (lnRNAs-H19); microRNA (miR-675); real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR).