Table 4.

Circulating microRNAs in hepatitis B virus infection and their role in necroinflammation vs fibrosis

Circulating microRNA	microRNA regulation	Clinical significance in HBV infection	Ref.
miR-122	↑	Correlates with the necroinflammatory activity, HBsAg and HBV DNA; Also correlated with ≥ F2 stage of liver fibrosis	Waidmann et al[103], Ji et al[109], Wang et al[106]
miR-210	↑	Marker of necroinflammation; Varies with the severity of HBV hepatitis	Song et al[140]
miR-125 (-125a-5p/ -125b)	↑	Correlates with HBV intrahepatic replication and necroinflammatory activity	Li et al[141], Zheng et al[134]
miR-124	↑	Marker of HBV-associated necroinflammation	Wang et al[142]
miR-29	↓	Marker of liver fibrosis irrespective of aetiology	Xing et al[139]
miR-223	↓	Marker of liver fibrosis, decreases with the progression to cirrhosis	Bao et al[43]
miR-185	↑	Increases in advanced HBV fibrosis; Could play a therapeutic role in HBV gene suppression in tumoral cells	Li et al[136], Fan et al[143]

↑ means upregulation. ↓ means downregulation. HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; miR: MicroRNA.