Development of miRNA-Based Therapeutics for Liver Cancer Using Bioinformatics Approaches

PURPOSE Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can cause chronic infection and can induce high risk of liver cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a predominant form of all liver cancers. Despite the availability of an effective HBV vaccine, all people are not vaccinated. Previously, it was reported that human miRNA can inhibit the HBV replication and can be used as biomarker or therapeutics. METHODS In our present study, we have used the CDS region of capsid protein, protein X, and small S protein of HBV. We used miRNAProtPred tool for prediction of potential human miRNAs. Tertiary structure prediction and miRNA-RNA docking was performed using RNA composer and HNADOCK server, respectively. We have used PyMol and GROMACs for molecular docking analysis and MD simulation, respectively. RESULTS We have identified a total of 120 human miRNA against the HBV CDS region. However, only 31 human miRNAs were identified as potential human miRNA that can inhibit the protein expression of HBV and can be used as potential therapeutics or biomarkers. Interestingly, some of the identified miRNAs were experimentally validated by other research groups such as hsa-miR-199a-3p, hsa-miR-15a and others. However, experimental validation is required for the remaining miRNAs. CONCLUSION The current approach will facilitate the research of development of miRNA-based therapeutics and biomarkers against liver cancer and/or HBV infection. The current approach is rapid and cost effective. The identified human miRNA can be used as therapeutics against HBV after experimental validation.