الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Egypt has one of the highest prevalence rates of HCV infection in the worldwide. chronic HCV is the main cause of liver cirrhosis and HCC. HCC is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and one of the major causes of death. It is often clinically silent and has poor prognosis short survival and high recurrence rates after treatment. Its incidence in Egypt was doubled in the last decade. AFP and CT have used in screening HCC patients. However, it was found that, AFP has a high rate of false negative and false positive results. MicroRNAs are endogenous noncoding single-stranded RNAs of 19 –22 nucleotides in length. They regulate gene expression and are important in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes. MiRNAs are attractive as potential biomarkers because their expression pattern is reflective of the underlying pathophysiologic processes and they are specific to various disease states. Moreover, miRNAs can be detected in a variety of sources, including tissue, blood and body fluids; they are reasonably stable and appear to be resistant to differences in sample handling, which increases their appeal as practical biomarkers. The clinical utility of miRNAs as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers has been demonstrated in various malignancies and a few non-malignant diseases. The potential value of miRNAs as diagnostic marker is a growing area of research in the past few years. This study aimed to determine the potential role of serum miR-122 and miR-224 as diagnostic, non-invasive molecular biomarkers for HCC in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C and to assess their sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing the disease as compared with AFP. This clinical study was conducted oneighty patients who attended to outpatient clinic at Centre of excellence of National Research Centrein the period from October 2015 to March 2016. In addition, 20 healthy volunteers (16 male & 4 female) with matched age and sex were included. Patients were classified to:- group of chronic hepatitis C: This group included 40 patients (34 male &6 female)with chronic hepatitis C infection,mean age48.94 ± 1.34 years. group of hepatocellular carcinoma: This group included 40 patients with HCC(33 male &7 female)related to HCV, mean age 52.03 ± 1.55 years. For every subject in this study, the following tests were performed: serum markers of AFP, ALT, AST, ALP, albumin and total bilirubin. Micro-RNA 122 and micro-RNA 224 relative expressions were analyzed using quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction technique. from the results of the present study we found that: Results regarding the demographic data, it was found that, there was no significant difference in sex distribution and in the mean age between patients and control groups. A significant increase in AFP, ALT, AST, ALP and total bilirubin was shown in patients of HCC compared with the control group. Also, there was significant increase in AFP, ALT, AST, ALP and total bilirubin in CHC patients compared with the control group. There was significant decrease in serum albumin, prothrombin concentration and platelets countsin both CHC group and HCC group compared to control group. Also, there was significant decrease in serum levels of albumin and platelets countsin HCC group compared with CHCgroup. The expression levels of miR-122 were significantly higher in CHC patients than HCC patients and control group. There was no significant difference in the expression levels of miR-224 in CHC patients compared to control group. The mean of serum miR-122 expression levels was significantly higher in CHC group than control group by 12.9-fold , however the mean of serum miR-122 expression levels was significantly lower in HCC group than both control group and CHC group by (7.6-fold and 99.2-fold respectively).While, the mean of serum miR-224 expression levels was significantly higher in HCC group than both control group and CHC group by (22.9-fold and 16-fold respectively). In CHC group, a significant direct correlation was found between miRNA-122with liver enzymes and AFP. There was significant inverse correlation between miR-122 with albumin and prothrombin concentration.