Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To investigate the levels of golgi protein 73 (GP73), hypoxia-inducing factor 1α (HIF-1α), microRNA (MiR) -21 and miR-148b in patients with different HBV viral loads in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection.
METHODS Ninety-two patients with CHB (the infected group) and 96 healthy healthcare examined subjects (the control group) were selected from Red Flag Hospital affiliated to Mudanjiang Medical College from Jan. 2019 to Dec. 2023. The infected group was further divided into the low load (49 cases) group and medium-high load group (43 cases) according to HBV loads. Liver fibrosis indexes and levels of GP73, HIF-1α, miR-21 and miR-148b were compared between the infected group and the control group, and levels of GP73, HIF-1α, miR-21 and miR-148b were compared between the different viral load groups. The correlation between GP73, HIF-1α, miR-21, miR-148b and viral load was analyzed, and their diagnostic values for single and combined detection of CHB was analyzed.
RESULTS In the infected group, the levels of hyaluronic acid (HA), type Ⅳ collagen (CⅣ), type Ⅲ procollagen (PCⅢ) and laminin (LN) were (39.98±9.91) μg/L, (22.44±4.13) μg/L, (31.62±3.86) μg/L, and (29.03±4.66) μg/L, respectively, and serum levels of GP73, HIF-1a and miR-21 were (29.88±9.85) ng/ml, (48.92±16.29) μg/L and 1.37±0.45, respectively, all higher than those of the control group; miR-148b was 0.98±0.32 in the infected group, lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Serum levels of GP73, HIF-1a and miR-21 in the medium-high load group were (46.32±11.22) ng/ml, (64.33±15.77) μg/L and 1.68±0.51, respectively, higher than those in the low-load group, and miR-148b was 0.60±0.16 in the medium-high load group, lower than those in the low-load group (P < 0.05). Serum levels of GP73, HIF-1a and miR-21 were positively correlated with viral load, while miR-148b performed oppositely (r=0.722; 0.683; 0.716; -0.658, respectively, P < 0.05). The area under the diagnostic curve (AUC) value of combined detection of GP73, HIF-1a, miR-21 and miR-148b for CHB was 0.941, which was higher than that of single detection (0.812; 0.787; 0.802; 0.802, respectively) (P < 0.05), with the sensitivity 95.65% and the specificity 84.37%.
CONCLUSIONS The liver fibrosis indexes and the GP73, HIF-1α and miR-21 in patients of CHB are highly expressed, while serum miR-148b level is low. The levels of GP73, HIF-1α and miR-21, miR-148b are related to viral loads. Moreover, the combined detection of GP73, HIF-1α, miR-21 and miR-148b has high diagnostic value for CHB.