Emerging hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been sequentially reported in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) treated with direct‐acting antivirals (DAAs). Homeobox transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR), an oncogene, has been reported to be associated with cancer. We investigated the predictive value of lnc‐HOTAIR for HCC surveillance in chronic HCV patients following DAAs therapy. The expression levels of lnc‐HOTAIR and ATG‐7 genes were measured in 220 with chronic HCV, following a DAAs based therapy for 12 weeks, the patients were followed‐up for attentive surveillance of HCC for 12 months after starting DAAs. In terms of lnc‐HOTAIR, patients with HCC and high viral load had significantly higher median expression levels of HOTAIR of (68 vs. 24; p = .001) and (94 vs. 52; p = .001), respectively. Moreover, the median expression level of ATG‐7 was higher in those who developed HCC (114 vs. 51; p = .001). The expression of lnc‐HOTAIR and ATG‐7 are significant predictors of the development of HCC in HCV‐4 infected patients treated with DAAs, with a cut‐off value of 37 and 86, respectively. The increased expression levels of lnc‐HOTAIR more than 68 in HCC patients following DAAs were correlated with poorer disease outcomes compared to those with lower expression levels; however, ATG‐7 expression levels more than 114 were correlated with worse overall survival but not the progression‐free one. We suggest that high expression levels of lnc‐HOTAIR could serve as a risk assessment biomarker for HCC before and during DAAs course therapy in Chronic HCV‐4 patients, and should be rigorously taken into consideration before DAAs.

中文翻译：

---

lnc-HOTAIR 可预测基因 4 型慢性丙型肝炎患者在直接抗病毒治疗后罹患肝细胞癌


在用直接作用抗病毒药物（DAA）治疗的慢性丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）中已相继报道了新发肝细胞癌（HCC）。据报道，同源框转录反义 RNA ( HOTAIR ) 是一种癌基因，与癌症有关。我们研究了lnc-HOTAIR对 DAA 治疗后慢性 HCV 患者 HCC 监测的预测价值。在 220 名慢性 HCV 患者中测量了lnc-HOTAIR和ATG-7基因的表达水平，在接受基于 DAA 的治疗 12 周后，对患者进行随访，在开始 DAA 后密切监测 HCC 情况 12 个月。就lnc-HOTAIR而言，HCC 和高病毒载量患者的HOTAIR中位表达水平显着较高，分别为（68 vs. 24； p = .001）和（94 vs. 52； p = .001）。此外，发展为 HCC 的患者中ATG-7的中位表达水平较高（114 比 51； p = .001）。 lnc-HOTAIR和ATG-7的表达是接受 DAA 治疗的 HCV-4 感染患者发生 HCC 的重要预测因素，截止值分别为 37 和 86。与表达水平较低的患者相比，DAAs 后 HCC 患者中lnc-HOTAIR表达水平增加超过 68，与较差的疾病结局相关；然而，ATG-7 表达水平超过 114 与较差的总生存期相关，但与无进展生存期无关。 我们建议，在慢性 HCV-4 患者的 DAA 疗程之前和期间， lnc-HOTAIR的高表达水平可以作为 HCC 风险评估生物标志物，并且在 DAA 之前应严格考虑。