Identification of novel microRNAs: Biomarkers for pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma in mice model

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most fatal cancer that has affected both male and female populations globally. With poor diagnosis and patient survival rates, it has become a global need for scientists to come to the aid. The main objective of the study was to profile the miRNAs in the serum of Control and DEN-treated mice at different time intervals (4 Weeks, 8 Weeks, 12 Weeks, and 16 Weeks) and identify HCC-associated miRNA as putative early biomarkers along with the miRNA regulated candidate gene which may be involved in HCC. Our study group involves 4,8,12, & 16 weeks 16-week-old treated male mice. Each group was sacrificed and analyzed for the stages of HCC. We employed <i>in silico</i> techniques for the small RNA-Seq and bioinformatics pipeline for further analysis. Our analysis revealed over 400 differentially expressed miRNAs in each treated sample and 10 novel miRNAs. The downstream analysis of these differentially expressed miRNAs, and their target genes opened an arena of different biological processes and pathways that these miRNAs affect during the development of HCC. The work has a promising role as the miRNAs predicted through this study can be used as biomarkers for early detection of HCC.