68 Furthermore, patients with low miR-26 expression showed better responses to interferon therapy.83 MiR-122 restoration also sensitized HCC cells to doxorubicin,84 as well as multi-kinase inhibitor Sorafenib,55 indicating miR-122 mimic in combination with anticancer drugs could be a promising therapeutic regimen against HCC. The discovery of miRNA has substantially altered conventional concepts on gene regulation and this class of tiny non-coding RNAs has emerged as novel players in the control of genes expression in cancer. Studies on miRNA profiling have revealed characteristic

miRNA dysregulations in different tumor types and unveiled the importance of miRNA involvement Selleck GDC941 in carcinogenesis. Functional and target association studies on dysregulated miRNAs in HCC have

enabled us to gain a more comprehensive understanding on their roles in the oncogenic signaling pathways. Nevertheless, the mechanistic cause of miRNA dysregulation remains to be fully explored and the characterization of many of the differential expressed miRNAs and their molecular and cell biological targets is still in progress. From a clinical point of view, preliminary studies have highlighted the value of miRNAs in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC. Differential expressed miRNA patterns may be useful in the stratification of patients to predict disease outcome and recurrence. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the potential use of antagomiRs as anticancer agents, especially for HCC because of their predominant selleck chemical uptake by the liver and see more enhanced hepatic stability.85 Technological advances have also demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing adeno-associated virus to administer miRNAs in a murine HCC model.59 In addition, treatment of chimpanzees with locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified oligonucleotide suppressed HCV infection.86 The success of miRNA delivery in these animal models may hold promise in the further development of miRNA targeted therapy, which may represent a new avenue for the treatment of HCC. This review was prepared through the support

of a Collaborative Research Fund from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Ref. No. CUHK4/CRF/08) “
“Real-time tissue elastography (RTE) is a non-invasive method for the measurement of tissue elasticity using ultrasonography. Liver fibrosis (LF) index is a quantitative method for evaluation of liver fibrosis calculated by RTE image features. This study aimed to investigate the significance of LF index for predicting liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C patients. In this prospective study, 115 patients with chronic hepatitis C who underwent liver biopsy were included, and the diagnostic accuracy of LF index and serum fibrosis markers was evaluated. RTE imaging was successfully performed on all patients. Median LF index in patients with F0–1, F2, F3 and F4 were 2.61, 3.07, 3.54 and 4.