Clinical study on serum miR-144-5p level in liver cancer patients and its relationship with clinical characteristics and bioinformatics analysis of target genes
10.3760/cma.j.cn115355-20241203-00553
- VernacularTitle:肝癌患者血清miR-144-5p水平及其与临床特征关系的临床研究及靶基因的生物信息学分析
- Author:
Fuhua WANG
1
;
Huayi ZHANG
;
Feng LI
;
Yunfeng YANG
;
Shufeng LIANG
;
Sutang GUO
;
Chunyan WANG
Author Information
1. 山西省肿瘤医院 中国医学科学院肿瘤医院山西医院 山西医科大学附属肿瘤医院检验科，太原 030013
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Carcinoma, hepatocellular;
miRNA-144-5p;
Ubiquitination;
Bioinformatics
- From:
Cancer Research and Clinic
2025;37(6):429-434
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To explore the serum miRNA-144-5p (miR-144-5p) level in liver cancer patients and its relationship with clinical characteristics, as well as the target genes of miR-144-5p and the possible pathogenic mechanisms.Methods:The morning fasting serum samples were retrospectively collected from 100 newly diagnosed liver cancer patients (liver cancer group) before any treatment in Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital from June 2019 to June 2020, as well as 100 healthy individuals (healthy control group) during physical examinations in the same period. The real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction method was used to measure the transcription level expression of miR-144-5p in serum. The high and low expressions of miR-144-5p in patients were determined based on the median relative expression level of miR-144-5p; the distribution differences between patients with high and low expressions of miR-144-5p among different clinical pathological features were compared. The online tools miRDB, TargetScan 8.0 and miRWalk were used to predict potential target genes for miR-144-5p, and Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed through a bioinformatics platform, and complementary sequences between miR-144-5p and target genes were analyzed using RNA22 software.Results:The median age of the liver cancer group was 54 years old, ranging from 38 to 74 years old, including 80 males (80.0%) and 20 females (20.0%); the median age of the healthy control group was 46 years old, ranging from 34 to 66 years old, including 69 males (69.0%) and 31 females (31.0%); there was no statistically significant difference in age and gender composition between the two groups (both P > 0.05). The median transcription level relative expression of miR-144-5p in liver cancer patients was lower than that in the healthy control group [ M ( Q1, Q3)] [0.311 (0.066, 2.270) vs. 1.067 (0.263, 3.620)], and the difference was statistically significant ( Z = -4.16, P < 0.001). The proportion of patients with low expression of miR-144-5p was higher in the group with maximum diameter of tumor > 5 cm compared to the group with maximum diameter of tumor ≤5 cm [59.3% (35/59) vs. 36.6% (15/41)] and in the group with metastasis compared to the group without metastasis [60.4% (29/48) vs. 40.4% (21/52)], and the differences were statistically significant (both P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the distribution of patients with high and low expressions of miR-144-5p among different subgroups based on gender, age >55 years, presence of hepatitis, cirrhosis, alpha fetoprotein >400 μ g/L, and differentiation degree (all P > 0.05). According to predictions, there were 34 miR-144-5p target genes shared by the three bioinformatics online tools. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that these target genes were associated with ubiquitination, primarily enriched in the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathway (hsa04120) and the mTOR signaling pathway (hsa04150). RNA22 software analysis showed that miR-144-5p mainly had complementary sequences with 3' untranslated regions of UBR5 and UBE4A genes. Conclusions:The serum miR-144-5p level in liver cancer patients is relatively low, and its expression level may be related to tumor size and metastasis. miR-144-5p may affect the occurrence and development of liver cancer by regulating ubiquitination level through target genes such as UBR5 and UBE4A.
