Clinical significance of apurinic/apyrimidinic endodeoxyribonuclease 1 and microRNAs axis in hepatocellular carcinoma [NanoString]

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequent species of liver cancer and the identification of new prognostic factors opens new perspectives for therapy. Circulating and cellular onco-miRNAs are non coding RNAs which can control oncogenesis-related gene expression through post-transcriptional mechanisms and are considered novel prognostic and predictive factors in cancer biology. The apurinic/apyrimidinic endodeoxyribonuclease 1 (APE1) contributes in the quality control and processing of specific onco-miRNAs, and is a negative prognostic factor in many tumors. The present work aims: a) to define APE1 prognostic value in HCC; b) to identify miRNAs regulated by APE1 and their relative target genes, and c) to study their prognostic value. In the study presented here, the miRNome profiling was analyzed in JHH-6 cells following the transient APE1 silencing to identify DEmiRNAs candidates. The experiment was performed in triplicates.