Evaluating miR-122-5p as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury: diagnostic efficacy and correlation with liver function indicators
- 1Department of Pharmacy, The Third People’s Hospital of Kunming, Kunming, China
- 2College of Pharmacy, Dali University, Dali, China
Abstract
Background: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is characterized by hepatic dysfunction due to exogenous agents, potentially progressing to acute liver failure. MicroRNA-122-5p (miR-122-5p) constitutes about 70% of total liver microRNAs, offering high liver specificity and superior sensitivity for detecting injury compared to traditional transaminases, without interference from renal or muscle injury. This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the diagnostic utility of miR-122-5p as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis DILI.
Methods: miR-122-5p expression was measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Descriptive statistics summarized sample characteristics. For normally distributed continuous variables with equal variances, data were presented as mean ± standard deviation, with comparisons among three groups using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA); otherwise, data were expressed as median (interquartile range) with Kruskal–Wallis H test, followed by Mann–Whitney U pairwise comparisons. Categorical variables were analyzed by Chi-square test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis assessed diagnostic efficacy (area under the curve (AUC), optimal cutoff, sensitivity, specificity). Correlations with alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were evaluated by Spearman’s rank correlation, and scatter plots with fitted lines were generated using Python.
Results: The DILI group showed significantly higher miR-122-5p expression (2.48 ± 0.81) than the Liver biochemical abnormality and Healthy control groups ( P < 0.001). ROC analysis yielded an AUC of 0.829 (95% confidence interval (CI) [0.732–0.926]), with sensitivity 0.833 and specificity 0.760 for distinguishing DILI from non-DILI. miR-122-5p positively correlated with ALT ( ρ = 0.626, P < 0.001) and AST ( ρ = 0.522, P < 0.001), but not with ALP ( ρ = 0.193, P = 0.114). No significant intergroup differences in age or gender were found ( P > 0.05).
Conclusions: Our research indicates that miR-122-5p has potential utility as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis DILI, particularly in distinguishing it from healthy controls. However, these findings are exploratory, based on a small cohort with no independent validation, and its incremental value beyond conventional liver function tests remains to be determined.
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BibTeX
@article{ma2026evaluating,
title = {{Evaluating miR-122-5p as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury: diagnostic efficacy and correlation with liver function indicators}},
author = {Guowei Ma and Chuang Yang and Yonggang Chen and Ji Luo and Xiang Zhu and Jie Chen},
journal = {PeerJ},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.7717/peerj.21911},
url = {https://peerj.com/articles/21911},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Evaluating miR-122-5p as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis drug-induced liver injury: diagnostic efficacy and correlation with liver function indicators
AU - Guowei Ma
AU - Chuang Yang
AU - Yonggang Chen
AU - Ji Luo
AU - Xiang Zhu
AU - Jie Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - PeerJ
DO - 10.7717/peerj.21911
UR - https://peerj.com/articles/21911
AB - Background: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is characterized by hepatic dysfunction due to exogenous agents, potentially progressing to acute liver failure. MicroRNA-122-5p (miR-122-5p) constitutes about 70% of total liver microRNAs, offering high liver specificity and superior sensitivity for detecting injury compared to traditional transaminases, without interference from renal or muscle injury. This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the diagnostic utility of miR-122-5p as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis DILI. Methods: miR-122-5p expression was measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Descriptive statistics summarized sample characteristics. For normally distributed continuous variables with equal variances, data were presented as mean ± standard deviation, with comparisons among three groups using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA); otherwise, data were expressed as median (interquartile range) with Kruskal–Wallis H test, followed by Mann–Whitney U pairwise comparisons. Categorical variables were analyzed by Chi-square test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis assessed diagnostic efficacy (area under the curve (AUC), optimal cutoff, sensitivity, specificity). Correlations with alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were evaluated by Spearman’s rank correlation, and scatter plots with fitted lines were generated using Python. Results: The DILI group showed significantly higher miR-122-5p expression (2.48 ± 0.81) than the Liver biochemical abnormality and Healthy control groups ( P < 0.001). ROC analysis yielded an AUC of 0.829 (95% confidence interval (CI) [0.732–0.926]), with sensitivity 0.833 and specificity 0.760 for distinguishing DILI from non-DILI. miR-122-5p positively correlated with ALT ( ρ = 0.626, P < 0.001) and AST ( ρ = 0.522, P < 0.001), but not with ALP ( ρ = 0.193, P = 0.114). No significant intergroup differences in age or gender were found ( P > 0.05). Conclusions: Our research indicates that miR-122-5p has potential utility as a biomarker for anti-tuberculosis DILI, particularly in distinguishing it from healthy controls. However, these findings are exploratory, based on a small cohort with no independent validation, and its incremental value beyond conventional liver function tests remains to be determined.
SN - 2167-8359
ER -