Circulating microRNA-155 is associated with insulin resistance in chronic hepatitis C patients

Abstract Background and study aim Hepatitis C represents a potential public health problem worldwide. Insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are among the serious metabolic complications for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small non-coding RNAs which are implicated in the modulation of almost all biological processes. The objective of this study was to investigate the levels of both miR-155 and miR-34a in sera of chronic HCV patients with or without T2D. Patients and methods In this study, we investigated the expression of both miR-155 and miR-34a in 80 subjects (20 HCV, 19 HCV/T2D, 21 T2D and 19 healthy controls), using quantitative real-time PCR. Results Our results revealed significantly higher levels of both miR-155 and miR-34a in chronic HCV patients compared to healthy control subjects. However, only circulating miR-155 levels showed significant decline in diabetic HCV patients compared to non-diabetic HCV group. Intriguingly, the circulating levels of miR-155 were inversely correlated with HOMA-IR, fasting blood glucose and HbA1c levels. Conclusion Our findings indicate that the insulin resistance and T2D in HCV are strongly related to miR-155. This may suggest a role for miR-155 in the pathogenesis of IR caused by HCV. However, further large-scale studies are required to confirm our findings.