The miRNA nanotherapeutics, activatable by stepwise stimulation of acidity and reduction mimicking tumor microenvironment, efficiently improve liver-specific miR-122 expression, increasing the possibility of translational application of miR-122 therapy against liver cancer.
Of note, the expression profile of APOBEC2 in the Huh7 and HepG2 liver cancer cell lines opposed that of miR‑122; this miR is the most abundant miRNA in the liver and has been associated with hepatocarcinogenesis.
Our results indicate that serum miR-122 and miR-222 are elevated in Egyptian patients with chronic HCV, and these miRNAs have a strong potential to serve as novel biomarkers for liver injury but not specifically for liver cancer.
RNA was extracted from 195 sera of HCC patients and 54 patients with liver cirrhosis, obtained at the time of study enrolment. miR-1 and miR-122 levels were correlated with overall survival (OS), Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) score, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, clinical chemistry parameters and tumor specific treatment.
Our data strongly suggest that miR-122 is a tumor suppressor that targets AKT3 to regulate tumorigenesis in HCCs and a potential therapeutic candidate for liver cancer.
Expression profiling using clone count analysis was used to identify miRNAs that are expressed aberrantly in liver cancer including miR-122, miR-21, and miR-34a.
In conclusion, miR-122 regulates mitochondrial metabolism and its loss may be detrimental to sustaining critical liver function and contribute to morbidity and mortality of liver cancer patients.
Collectively, these results suggest that the loss of multifunctional miR-122 contributes to the malignant phenotype of HCC cells, and miR-122 mimetic alone or in combination with anticancer drugs can be a promising therapeutic regimen against liver cancer.