Altered Protein and Gene Expression of Beclin-1 Correlates with Poor Prognosis of Hcv-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Egyptian Patients

Ehsan, Nermine Ahmed; Mosbeh, Asmaa M; Elkhadry, Sally Waheed; Gomaa, Asmaa Ibrahim; Elsabaawy, Maha Mohamed; Elazab, Dina Shehata

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2021.22.4.1115

Altered Protein and Gene Expression of Beclin-1 Correlates with Poor Prognosis of Hcv-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Egyptian Patients

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

¹ Department of Pathology, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt.

² Molecular Pathology, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt.

³ Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt.

⁴ National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt.

10.31557/APJCP.2021.22.4.1115

Abstract

Autophagy modulation has recently been addressed as a novel target for overcoming therapeutic resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to currently available anti-HCC therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the protein and gene expression of Beclin-1 and its correlation with prognosis in HCV-associated HCC in Egyptian patients. This prospective study included 50 patients with HCV-associated-HCC, treated with surgical resection. Immunohistochemistry of antibody and quantitative real-time PCR of Beclin-1 gene were assessed in liver tissues of HCC. A normal-like expression pattern of Beclin-1 was found in 100% of adjacent liver tissues, while in HCC three various patterns were recognized: negative expression [18 (36%)], over expression [16 (32%)] and normal pattern [16 (32%)] (p=0.001). Beclin-1 mRNA in HCC tissues correlated with protein expression with correlation coefficient of 0.774 (p <0.001). Patients with negative expression of Beclin-1 had a significantly poor overall survival rates compared with patients with normal-like expression pattern (p <0.007), which was confirmed by multivariate analysis (p=0.01). Over-expression of Beclin-1 was significantly associated with vascular invasion (p <0.003). However, high tumor histological grade, focal lesion multiplicity, presence of involved margin or cirrhosis were insignificantly related to Becin-1. Beclin-1 altered expression has an important role in development and prognosis of HCC.

Keywords

Main Subjects