Human Endogenous Retroviruses-K (HML-2) Expression Is Correlated with Prognosis and Progress of Hepatocellular Carcinoma. (14th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Weijie; Hong, Zhenfei; Liu, Hailing; Chen, Xi; Ding, Lu; Liu, Zhisu; Zhou, Fuling; Yuan, Yufeng
• Other Names: Grasselli Elena Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: BioMed research international. Volume 2016(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-12-14
• Subjects: Medicine -- Periodicals; Biology -- Periodicals; Biotechnology -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Periodicals; 610.5
• DOI: 10.1155/2016/8201642
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2314-6133

Abstract

Abstract : Background . The association between human endogenous retroviruses-K (HERV-K) (HML-2) and human disease, including a variety of cancers, has been indicated. However, the function of HERV-K (HML-2) in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remains largely unclear. Methods . We detected the expression of HERV-K (HML-2) in 84 HCC tissues and adjacent nontumor tissues by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and analyzed its correlation with the clinical parameters. Result . The HEVR-K level was significantly increased in HCC compared with adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.01 ) which was proved to be significantly associated with cirrhosis (P < 0.05 ), tumor differentiation (P < 0.05 ), and TNM stage (P < 0.05 ). Moreover, the high expression of HERV-K (HML-2) had a poorer overall survival than patients with lower expression by a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (P < 0.01 ). The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the level of HERV-K (HML-2) was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival rate of HCC patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves demonstrated the diagnostic accuracy of HERV-K (HML-2) expression in HCC (AUC = 0.729, 74.7% sensitivity, and 67.8% specificity). Conclusions . Our results suggested that upregulation of HERV-K (HML-2) in HCC patients was significantly related to cancer progression and poor outcome, indicating that HERV-K (HML-2) might be a novel candidate prognostic biomarker for HCC.