Journal
FRONTIERS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY
Volume 14, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.938102
Keywords
long noncoding RNAs; AFP; diagnostic biomarker; hepatocellular carcinoma; immune infiltration
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigated the diagnostic value of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) lnc-MyD88 as a plasma biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The results showed that lnc-MyD88 was highly expressed in the plasma samples of HCC patients and HBV-associated HCC patients. Compared to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), lnc-MyD88 had better diagnostic value in HCC patients, especially in HBV-associated HCC and AFP-negative HCC. Therefore, lnc-MyD88 may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for HCC.
BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignancies. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has some limitations in diagnosing early HCC. Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) showed great potential as tumor diagnostic biomarkers, and lnc-MyD88 was previously identified as a carcinogen in HCC. Here, we explored its diagnostic value as a plasma biomarker. Materials and methodsQuantitative real-time PCR was adopted to detect lnc-MyD88 expression in plasma samples of 98 HCC patients, 52 liver cirrhosis (LC) patients, and 105 healthy people. The correlation between lnc-MyD88 and clinicopathological factors was analyzed through chi-square test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, and area under the curve (AUC) of lnc-MyD88 and AFP alone and in combination for the diagnosis of HCC. The relationship between MyD88 and immune infiltration was analyzed by single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) algorithm. ResultsLnc-MyD88 was highly expressed in plasma samples of HCC and hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated HCC patients. Lnc-MyD88 had better diagnostic value than AFP in HCC patients using healthy people or LC patients as control (healthy people, AUC: 0.776 vs. 0.725; LC patients, AUC: 0.753 vs. 0.727). The multivariate analysis showed that lnc-MyD88 had great diagnostic value for distinguishing HCC from LC and healthy people. Lnc-MyD88 had no correlation with AFP. Lnc-MyD88 and AFP were independent diagnostic factors for HBV-associated HCC. The AUC, sensitivity, and Youden index of the combined diagnosis of lnc-MyD88 and AFP combined were higher than those of lnc-MyD88 and AFP alone. The ROC curve of lnc-MyD88 for the diagnosis of AFP-negative HCC was plotted with a sensitivity of 80.95%, a specificity of 79.59%, and an AUC value of 0.812 using healthy people as control. The ROC curve also presented its great diagnostic value using LC patients as control (sensitivity: 76.19%, specificity: 69.05%, AUC value: 0.769). Lnc-MyD88 expression was correlated with microvascular invasion in HBV-associated HCC patients. MyD88 was positively correlated with infiltrating immune cells and immune-related genes. ConclusionThe high expression of plasma lnc-MyD88 in HCC is distinct and could be utilized as a promising diagnostic biomarker. Lnc-MyD88 had great diagnostic value for HBV-associated HCC and AFP-negative HCC, and it had higher efficacy in combination with AFP.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available