Noninvasive stratification of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by whole transcriptome cell-free mRNA characterization.

ABSTRACT: Hepatic fibrosis stage is the most important determinant of outcomes in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). There is an urgent need for noninvasive tests that can accurately stage fibrosis and determine efficacy of interventions. Here, we describe a novel cell-free (cf)-mRNA sequencing approach that can accurately and reproducibly profile low levels of circulating mRNAs and evaluate the feasibility of developing a cf-mRNA-based NAFLD fibrosis classifier. Using separate discovery and validation cohorts with biopsy-confirmed NAFLD (n = 176 and 59, respectively) and healthy subjects (n = 23), we performed serum cf-mRNA RNA-Seq profiling. Differential expression analysis identified 2,498 dysregulated genes between patients with NAFLD and healthy subjects and 1

SUBMITTER: Chalasani N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8238173 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature