Evaluation of Circulatory RNA-Based Biomarker Panel in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: The circulating transcriptome (coding and non-coding) plays a critical role in cancer. Novel accurate strategies for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are strongly needed. Patients and Methods: We chose an HCC-specific RNA-based biomarker panel based on the integration of differential lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2) gene expression with its selected epigenetic regulators using bioinformatic methods. This was followed by RT-qPCR validation in serum of 78 patients with HCC, 36 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection and 44 healthy volunteers. We used risk-score analysis to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the serum profiling system. Moreover, in twenty of the 78 HCC cases involved in the study we examined the expression of RNA-based biomarker panel in both HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues and assessed their correlation with the serum level of this panel. Results: The four ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based biomarker panel [long non-coding RNA-C terminal binding protein, androgen responsive (lncRNA–CTBP), microRNA-16-2 (miR-16-2), microRNA-21-5-P (miR-21-5p) and LAMP2], had high sensitivity and specificity for discriminating HCC from healthy controls and also from CHC patients. Among these four RNAs, serum miR-16-2 and miR-21-5p were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: The circulatory RNA-based biomarker panel can serve as a potential biomarker for HCC diagnosis and prognosis.