Original Article

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Dynamic edge-based biomarker non-invasively predicts hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatitis B virus infection for individual patients based on blood testing
Yiyu Lu 1,† , Zhaoyuan Fang 2,† , Meiyi Li 2,6,† , Chen Qian1, Tao Zeng2, Lina Lu2, Qilong Chen1, Hui Zhang1, Qianmei Zhou1, Yan Sun4, Xuefeng Xue4, Yiyang Hu 5,* , Luonan Chen 2,3,7,8,* , and Shibing Su 1,*
1 Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
2 Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of
Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
3 Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
4 Qidong Liver Cancer Institute, Qidong People’s Hospital, Qidong 226200, China
5 Institute of Liver Disease, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
6 Minhang Branch, Zhongshan Hospital/Institute of Fudan-Minhang Academic Health System, Minhang Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201199, China
7 School of Life Science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai 201210, China
8 Research Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Shanghai 201210, China
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*Correspondence to:Yiyang Hu, E-mail: yyhuliver@163.com; Luonan Chen, E-mail: lnchen@sibs.ac.cn; Shibing Su, E-mail: shibingsu07@163.com
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 11, Issue 8, August 2019, 665-677,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjz025

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major cause of cancer-related deaths in Asia and Africa. Developing effective and non-invasive biomarkers of HCC for individual patients remains an urgent task for early diagnosis and convenient monitoring. Analyzing the transcriptomic profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from both healthy donors and patients with chronic HBV infection in different states (i.e. HBV carrier, chronic hepatitis B, cirrhosis, and HCC), we identified a set of 19 candidate genes according to our algorithm of dynamic network biomarkers. These genes can both characterize different stages during HCC progression and identify cirrhosis as the critical transition stage before carcinogenesis. The interaction effects (i.e. co-expressions) of candidate genes were used to build an accurate prediction model: the so-called edge-based biomarker. Considering the convenience and robustness of biomarkers in clinical applications, we performed functional analysis, validated candidate genes in other independent samples of our collected cohort, and finally selected COL5A1, HLA-DQB1, MMP2, and CDK4 to build edge panel as prediction models. We demonstrated that the edge panel had great performance in both diagnosis and prognosis in terms of precision and specificity for HCC, especially for patients with alpha-fetoprotein-negative HCC. Our study not only provides a novel edge-based biomarker for non-invasive and effective diagnosis of HBV-associated HCC to each individual patient but also introduces a new way to integrate the interaction terms of individual molecules for clinical diagnosis and prognosis from the network and dynamics perspectives.