Pro-Neurotensin as a Potential Novel Diagnostic Biomarker for Detection of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Background and Aims

Currently, liver biopsy is the gold standard method for diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver severity. It is critical to develop non-invasive diagnostic method to diagnose nonalcoholic fatty liver rather than invasive techniques. Our case–control study was to address the value of circulating miRNA-122 and serum pro-neurotensin as a potential non-invasive biomarker for the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty acid diseases.

Methods

Clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, and anthropometric measurements were reported for 157 patients with proven NAFLD. Apparently, healthy participants (n=100) were enrolled as a control group. Serum samples were tested for micro-RNAs−122 and pro-neurotensin.

Results

Compared with the control subjects, both mi-RNA-122 and serum proneurotensin levels were increased in NAFLD (p<0.001) and at a cut-off ≥6.83, mi-RNA-122 had 51.0% sensitivity, 70.0% specificity to differentiate NAFLD from healthy controls, while serum proneurotensin had 80.0% sensitivity and 80.0% specificity at a cutoff ≥108.

Conclusion

The circulating pro-neurotensin might be used as a novel biomarker for diagnosis of patients with NAFLD, wherefore the integration of a circulating mi-RNA-122 and serum pro-neurotensin could be beneficial to diagnose NAFLD cases. Large-scale studies are needed to investigate the possible role of mi-RNA-122 and pro-neurotensin in the development, progression, and prognosis of NAFLD and NASH.

Keywords:

• nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
• NAFLD
• metabolic associated fatty liver disease
• MAFLD
• biomarker
• proneurotensin
• micro-RNA-122
• noninvasive
• diagnosis
• fatty liver

Human and Animal Rights

No animals were used in this research. All human research procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the committee responsible for human experimentation (institutional and national), and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013.

Standards for Reporting

STROBE guidelines were followed for this case–control study.

Data Sharing Statement

Data are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Minia University.

Consent for Publication

Informed consent was signed by every patient before enrolment in the study.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding to report.