RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Global microarray profiling identified hsa_circ_0064428 as a potential immune-associated prognosis biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma JF Journal of Medical Genetics JO J Med Genet FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 32 OP 38 DO 10.1136/jmedgenet-2018-105440 VO 56 IS 1 A1 Qiaoyou Weng A1 Minjiang Chen A1 Maoquan Li A1 Yong-Fa Zheng A1 Guoliang Shao A1 Weijun Fan A1 Xi-Ming Xu A1 Jiansong Ji YR 2019 UL http://jmg.bmj.com/content/56/1/32.abstract AB Background Increasing evidence has shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved tumourigenesis and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, progression about its function in HCC is relatively slow. Here, we aimed to investigate whether plasma circRNAs could reflect the tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in HCC tumour tissues and serve as prognosis biomarker for HCC.Methods Tissue samples of patients with HCC were subjected to immunohistochemistry staining against CD8 to examine the TILs. Then, we investigated the expression profile of circRNAs by microarray between plasma of patients with HCC with high TILs and low TILs, and the differentially expressed circRNAs were validated with qRT-PCR. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software and GraphPad Prism.Results We have demonstrated that patients with HCC with high TILs exhibit a significant better overall survival, suggesting clinical outcome could be predicted by TILs. Global circRNA microarray between plasma of patients with HCC with high TILs and low TILs successfully identified six differentially expressed novel circRNAs. Among them, the expression of hsa_circ_0064428 was significantly reduced in patients with HCC with high TILs but increased in patients with low TILs. Moreover, hsa_circ_0064428 was negatively correlated with patient’s survival, tumour size and metastasis.Conclusion These findings together imply that hsa_circ_0064428 could be considered as a potential HCC prognosis biomarker. Future in-depth research is required to further illustrate the involvement of hsa_circ_0064428 in HCC tumourigenesis and metastasis.