Circulatory microRNAs (miR-16 and miR-885) as Potential Diagnostic Markers for Acute Hepatitis C

Background: The injunctive potential of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has raised intense investigation for their use as noninvasive biomarkers for liver diseases, especially for hepatitis C (HC). Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of circulating miR-16 and miR-885 in acute hepatitis C (AHC) patients compared with healthy controls.  Methods: A case–control study was carried out among 120 confirmed cases of acute hepatitis C to compare them with 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls at Al-Najaf Teaching Hospital, Najaf, Iraq, from March 2024 to February 2025. Concentrations of liver enzymes (ALT, AST, ALP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum were measured using standard biochemical assays, and circulating miR-16 and miR-885 concentrations were measured by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).  Results: miR-16 and miR-885 were significantly increased in patients with HC compared to controls (p < 0.001). Compared with miR-16, miR-885 had a higher r value and significance as a positive correlation with ALT (r = 0.71, p < 0.001) and CRP (r = 0.68, p < 0.001). ROC analysis showed good diagnostic accuracy for both biomarkers: the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.798 (p = 0.03) for miR-16 and 0.885 (p < 0.02) for miR-885. Using cut-off points of 1.85 and 2.10 for high/low miR levels, miR-16 had 82.5% sensitivity and 76% specificity, while miR-885 had 88.3% sensitivity and 82.5% specificity.  Conclusion: miR-16 and miR-885 are significantly elevated in acute hepatitis C and correlate strongly with biochemical markers of hepatic injury and inflammation. Notably, miR-885 reflects an excellent accuracy in diagnosis which may provide evidence for our results to support the use of miR-885 as a non-invasive biomarker suitable for the early diagnosis and clinical monitoring of HCV infection.