{"doi":"10.3390/ijms25020975","title":"Serum microRNA Profiles and Pathways in Hepatitis B-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A South African Study","abstract":"The incidence and mortality of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to increase sharply by 2040 against a backdrop of limited diagnostic and therapeutic options. Two large South African-based case control studies have developed a serum-based miRNome for Hepatitis B-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HBV-HCC), as well as identifying their gene targets and pathways. Using a combination of RNA sequencing, differential analysis and filters including a unique molecular index count (UMI) ≥ 10 and log fold change (LFC) range > 2: <−0.5 (p < 0.05), 91 dysregulated miRNAs were characterized including 30 that were upregulated and 61 were downregulated. KEGG analysis, a literature review and other bioinformatic tools identified the targeted genes and HBV-HCC pathways of the top 10 most dysregulated miRNAs. The results, which are based on differentiating miRNA expression of cases versus controls, also develop a serum-based miRNA diagnostic panel that indicates 95.9% sensitivity, 91.0% specificity and a Youden Index of 0.869. In conclusion, the results develop a comprehensive African HBV-HCC miRNome that potentially can contribute to RNA-based diagnostic and therapeutic options.","journal":"International Journal of Molecular Sciences","year":2024,"id":453961,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.96,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":22782,"name":"Benn Sartorius","orcid":"0000-0001-6761-2325","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":33037,"name":"Cheryl A. Winkler","orcid":"0000-0001-5552-0917","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":458328,"name":"Anil A. Chuturgoon","orcid":"0000-0003-4649-4133","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":622938,"name":"Tsai-Wei Shen","orcid":"0000-0001-9644-1748","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228426,"name":"Yongmei Zhao","orcid":"0000-0003-0800-4658","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":344609,"name":"Ping An","orcid":"0000-0002-5322-3510","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":458326,"name":"Kurt Sartorius","orcid":"0000-0002-8912-9059","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":254,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:03:03.428151Z","pmid":"38256049","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}