Lower expressed miR-198 and its potential targets in hepatocellular carcinoma: a clinicopathological and in silico study

Wen-Ting Huang,1,* Han-Lin Wang,1,* Hong Yang,2 Fang-Hui Ren,1 Yi-Huan Luo,1 Chun-Qin Huang,1 Yue-Ya Liang,1 Hai-Wei Liang,1 Gang Chen,1 Yi-Wu Dang1 1Department of Pathology, 2Department of Ultrasonography, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: To investigate the clinicopathological value and potential roles of microRNA-198 (miR-198) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: Ninety-five formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded HCC and the para-cancerous liver tissues were gathered. Real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction was applied to determine the miR-198 expression. The association between the miR-198 expression and clinicopathological features was examined. Meanwhile, potential target messenger RNAs of miR-198 in HCC were obtained from 14 miRNA prediction databases and natural language processing method, in which we pooled the genes related to the tumorigenesis and progression of HCC and classified them by their frequency. The selected target genes were finally analyzed in the Gene Ontology analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway.Results: miR-198 expression was significantly lower in HCC than that in adjacent noncancerous liver tissues (1.30±0.72 vs 2.01±0.58, P