Electronic Journal of Liver Tumor ›› 2020, Vol. 7 ›› Issue (3): 30-35.

• Original article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of miRNA-149 expression on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and its potential mechanism

Jin Xiaoxin, He Shilin, Gao Yanyan*, Yu Xiaoshuang, Wang Zhenguo, Hou Shike   

  1. Department of Oncology, Characteristic Medical Center of PAP, Tianjin 300162, China
  • Received:2020-04-26 Published:2020-10-22

Abstract: Objective: To explore the effect of miRNA-149 expression on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its potential mechanism. Methods: Clinical and genomic data of 344 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was selected from TCGA database. According to the level of miRNA-149 expression, the patients were divided into two groups: high expression group (n = 172) and low expression group (n = 172). The survival curves of the two groups were drawn, and the relative expression levels of miRNA-149 in patients with different tumor stages were compared. The top 50 genes with the highest positive and negative correlation coefficients with miRNA-149 were selected for biological annotation, classification and interaction analysis of encoded proteins. The expression levels of miRNA-149, glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (GLUD1) and hydroxysteroid 17-β dehydrogenase 4 (HSD17B4) were detected by RT-PCR in 32 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The differences of miRNA-149 expression in patients with different stages were compared. 32 patients were divided into high miRNA-149 expression group (group H) and low expression group (group L). The clinical data of the two groups were compared. Results: The median survival time of patients with low expression of miRNA-149 was longer than that of patients with high expression of miRNA-149, and the difference was statistically significant (2532 d vs.1271 d P<0.001). According to the pathological stage, the expression level of miRNA-149 in stage I was significantly lower than that in stageⅡ andⅢ (P<0. 05). According to T stage, the expression level of miRNA-149 in T1 stage was significantly lower than that in T2 and T3 stage (P<0. 05). The main biological processes involved in miRNA-149-related genes are biological regulation. The main molecular functions involved are protein binding. The main cell components involved are cell membrane. The main signal pathways involved are extracellular matrix metabolic pathway. GLUD1 and HSD17B4 are proteins at the core of the interaction network between related genes. Compared with group H, the expression of GLUD1 and HSD17B4 genes in group L was significantly higher than that in group H (P<0.05). There was significant difference in the expression level of miRNA-149 among different stages of clinical samples (P = 0.019). The expression level of miRNA-149 in patients with stage Ⅲ was significantly higher than that in patients with stage Ⅰ or Ⅱ (P<0.05). Conclusion: The high expression of miRNA-149 is related to the poor long-term prognosis of HCC, which may be related to its targeted regulation of glutamate and estradiol metabolic pathway.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma, MiRNA-149, Prognosis