Expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog gene in hepatitis C virus induced hepatocellular carcinoma

Hussein, Asmaa M.; Afifi, Magdy M.; Wardany, Ahmed A.; Ramadan, Haidi Karam-Allah; Gaber, Noha

doi:10.21608/mb.2025.361569.1257

Expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog gene in hepatitis C virus induced hepatocellular carcinoma

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, 71524 Assiut, Egypt.

² Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City 11884, Cairo, Egypt.

³ Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt.

⁴ Department of Clinical Pathology, South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

10.21608/mb.2025.361569.1257

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common etiology of cancer-related deaths, and hepatitis C virus is considered a major risk factor. The cutoff level of expression of Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog (PTEN) tumor suppressor gene in predicting hepatocellular carcinoma is still not clearly determined. We aimed to investigate the expression levels of PTEN in diagnosis of hepatitis C-related hepatocellular carcinoma. A group of 50 patients with hepatitis C-induced hepatocellular carcinoma, and a control group of 30 healthy participants were included. History, examination and laboratory investigations were recorded for all the participants. Evaluation of liver disease severity and radiological assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma were done for the patients. PTEN gene expression assay was performed for all participants. Patients had significantly lower levels of PTEN in comparison to the control (0.89 ± 0.23 vs. 2.35 ± 1.09) and PTEN level was lower in advanced liver disease. At a cutoff < 0.67, PTEN had 98% accuracy for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma with area under curve 0.990, while alpha fetoprotein at a cutoff > 155 ng/ml had 69% accuracy with area under curve 0.53. About 45/50 (90%) of patients had down regulation of PTEN gene expression compared to 10/30 (33.3%) of the control. PTEN gene expression level was a significant predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma (p = 0.012). Hepatitis C virus-induced hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly associated with downregulation of PTEN gene expression which increased with advanced liver diseases. At a cutoff of 0.67, PTEN was a significant predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma.

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