Nuclear factor KAPPA-B, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and the transforming growth factor-beta as biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma on top of HCV infection

ABSTRACT

The current study was aimed to investigate the usefulness of nuclear factor kappa- B [NF- kB] expression, tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF- alpha] and the transforming growth factor-beta [TGF-beta1] as markers in prediction and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC] on top of HCV. The current study was performed on 30 male Egyptian patients, their age ranged from 43 to 74. Twenty patients with hepatitis C virus'related hepatocellular carcinoma [HCV-related HCC] with no evidence of extrahepatic metastasis or hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] and 10 Egyptian patients with chronic active hepatitis C virus, with matched age and sex. All patients were infected with HCV genotype-4a. Fasting blood samples were collected from all subjects [10 ml each]. 1 ml was added onto EDTA for immediate extraction of NF- kB RNA. The serum was used for the qualitative determination of HCV antibodies, quantitative determination of HCV-RNA by PCR, quantitative determination of the bio-markers [AFP-TNF-alpha and TGF-beta1], as well as quantitative determination alanine aminotransferase [ALT] and albumin. Results revealed a non significant change in HCV-RNA and ALT in HCV-related HCC patients compared to HCV infected patients. Whereas, TGF-beta, TNF-alpha, AFP and NF-kB were increased significantly in HCV-related HCC patients compared to HCV infected patients. Stepwise multi-regression analysis showed that NF- kB [more than 1.49 fold change] with TGF-beta [more than 8438 pg/ml] together are the most sensitive predictors for HCC. NF- kB, TGF- beta are the most sensitive predictors for HCC on top of HCV