Circulating microRNAs improve bacterial infection diagnosis and overall survival prediction in acute decompensation of liver cirrhosis

Yasmina Chouik; Fanny Lebossé; Marie-Laure Plissonnier; Jean-Christophe Lega; Pierre Pradat; Teresa Antonini; Miroslava Subic; Kerstin Hartig-Lavie; Domitille Erard; François Villeret; Céline Guichon; Audrey Payancé; Sylvie Radenne; Pierre-Emmanuel Rautou; Fabien Zoulim; Massimo Levrero

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107427

Circulating microRNAs improve bacterial infection diagnosis and overall survival prediction in acute decompensation of liver cirrhosis

iScience. 2023 Jul 20;26(8):107427. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107427. eCollection 2023 Aug 18.

Authors

Yasmina Chouik^{1

2

3}, Fanny Lebossé^{1

2

3}, Marie-Laure Plissonnier¹, Jean-Christophe Lega⁴, Pierre Pradat⁵, Teresa Antonini², Miroslava Subic³, Kerstin Hartig-Lavie², Domitille Erard², François Villeret^{2

3}, Céline Guichon⁶, Audrey Payancé⁷, Sylvie Radenne², Pierre-Emmanuel Rautou^{7

8}, Fabien Zoulim^{1

2

3}, Massimo Levrero^{1

2

3

9}

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL), INSERM U1052, CNRS UMR5286, Lyon, France.
² Department of Hepatology, Hôpital Croix-Rousse, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France.
³ University of Lyon Claude Bernard 1 (UCLB1), Lyon, France.
⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Lyon Sud, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France.
⁵ Clinical Research Center, GHN, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France.
⁶ Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Hôpital Croix-Rousse, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France.
⁷ Université Paris-Cité, Inserm, Centre de recherche sur l'inflammation, UMR 1149, Paris, France.
⁸ Service d'Hépatologie, AP-HP, Hôpital Beaujon, DMU DIGEST, Centre de Référence des Maladies Vasculaires du Foie, FILFOIE, ERN RARE-LIVER, Clichy, France.
⁹ Department of Medicine SCIAC and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) Center for Life Nanosciences (CLNS), University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Bacterial infections are the most frequent precipitating event in patients with acute decompensation of cirrhosis (AD) and are associated with high mortality. Early diagnosis is challenging due to cirrhosis-related systemic inflammation. Here we investigated the potential of circulating microRNAs to diagnose bacterial infections and predict survival in cirrhotic patients with AD. High throughput profiling of circulating microRNAs was performed using the Nanostring technology in 57 AD patients and 24 patients with compensated cirrhosis (CC). Circulating miRs profiling showed that: (a) miRs differentially detected in AD vs. CC were mostly down-regulated; (b) a composite score including absolute neutrophil count, C reactive protein and miR-362-3p could diagnose bacterial infection with an excellent performance (AUC of 0.825 [95% CI = 0.671-0.980; p < 0.001]); (c) a composite score including miR-382-5p, miR-592 and MELD-Na improved 6-month survival prediction. Circulating miRs are strongly dysregulated in patients with AD and may help to improve bacterial infection diagnosis and survival prediction.

Keywords: Bacteriology; Cell biology.