Is microRNA-143 really a turncoat of tumor suppressor microRNA in hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma?

摘要

The study from Dr. Sun's group explained an interesting phenomenon on why microRNA-143, a commonly down-regulated mi-croRNA in many types of cancer, expressed at a high level in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). They used a hepatitis B virus x protein (HBx) transgenic mouse model and tissue samples from clinical patients to show that microRNA-143 is a key mediator in HBV-related HCC metastasis. This is the first study to demonstrate that HBxuclear factor kappa B(NF-kappaB)/mir-l43/fibronec-tin type III domain containing 3B (FNDC3B) is an important signal pathway in pathological process of HCC metastasis.1 Yet, we still have several questions about this study.