Background: Progranulin (GP88) is an 88-kDa glycoprotein growth factor with important biological effects in tumorigenesis and tumor survival. We investigated the usefulness of measuring serum GP88 (sGP88) levels as a predictive biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with viral hepatitis C after treatment with direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents.

Methods: We measured the sGP88 levels by using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay from 67 healthy control subjects and 29 patients (20 patients who did not develop HCC and 9 patients who developed HCC after treatment) with viral hepatitis C after treatment with asunaprevir and daclatasvir.

Results: The sGP88 levels of patients with chronic hepatitis C prior to antiviral treatment were significantly higher than those of healthy control subjects. After antiviral treatment, the sGP88 levels of patients who eventually developed HCC were significantly higher than those who did not develop HCC. The changes in the sGP88 levels before and after treatment in patients who developed HCC were significantly lower than those in patients who did not develop HCC. The cumulative incidence of HCC was significantly higher in either patients with high sGP88 levels after treatment or those with small changes of sGP88 levels pre- and post-treatment.

Conclusions: Sustained high levels of sGP88 in patients treated with DAA agents are correlated with the risk of developing HCC.

背景：颗粒蛋白前体 (GP88) 是一种 88-kDa 糖蛋白生长因子，在肿瘤发生和肿瘤存活中具有重要的生物学效应。我们调查了测量血清 GP88 (sGP88) 水平作为病毒性丙型肝炎患者在使用直接作用抗病毒 (DAA) 药物治疗后肝细胞癌 (HCC) 的预测生物标志物的有用性。

方法：我们使用夹心酶联免疫测定法测量了 67 名健康对照受试者和 29 名病毒性丙型肝炎患者（20 名未发生 HCC 的患者和 9 名治疗后发生 HCC 的患者）在接受阿舒瑞韦和达卡他韦治疗后的 sGP88 水平.

结果：慢性丙型肝炎患者抗病毒治疗前sGP88水平明显高于健康对照组。抗病毒治疗后，最终发生 HCC 的患者 sGP88 水平显着高于未发生 HCC 的患者。发生 HCC 的患者治疗前后 sGP88 水平的变化明显低于未发生 HCC 的患者。无论是治疗后 sGP88 水平高的患者，还是治疗前后 sGP88 水平变化较小的患者，HCC 的累积发病率都显着升高。

结论：接受 DAA 药物治疗的患者中持续高水平的 sGP88 与发生 HCC 的风险相关。