Abstract:

Objective To investigate the roles of serum exosomal microRNA（miR）-23b-3p and miR-4429 expression levels in diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）. Methods Totally，51 HCC patients，45 chronic hepatitis B（CHB） patients and 40 healthy subjects from Taizhou Central Hospital were enrolled from November 2019 to October 2022. The exosomes in serum were extracted by size exclusion chromatography. Identification was performed by western blot. The expression levels of miR-23b-3p and miR-4429 in the exosomes were determined by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Alpha-fetoprotein（AFP） was determined as well. Receiver operating characteristic（ROC）curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of miR-23b-3p，miR-4429 and AFP single and combined determinations in HCC. Results The relative expression levels of serum exosomal miR-23b-3p and miR-4429 and AFP levels in HCC group were higher than those in healthy control group and CHB group（P<0.05）. Serum AFP level in CHB group was higher than that in healthy control group（P<0.05），and there was no statistical significance in the relative expression levels of serum exosomal miR-23b-3p and miR-4429 between the 2 groups（P>0.05）. ROC curve analysis results showed that the areas under curves（AUC） of serum exosomal miR-23b-3p，miR-4429，AFP for the diagnosis of HCC were 0.911，0.876 and 0.857，respectively，and the AUC of combined determination was 0.989. The sensitivity and specificity were 92.2% and 98.0%，respectively. Conclusions Serum exosomal miR-23b-3p and miR-4429 can be used as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of HCC，and the combined determination is helpful to improve the diagnostic efficiency.

Key words: MicroRNA-23b-3p, MicroRNA -4429, Exosome, Hepatocellular carcinoma