丙型肝炎病毒诱发肝细胞癌的分子机制

丙型肝炎是由丙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis C virus,HCV)引起的一种肝脏疾病。肝细胞癌(hepatocellular carcinoma,HCC)是人类最常见的恶性肿瘤之一。大量实验和临床研究表明,HCV的感染是导致肝细胞癌的主要因素之一。尽管目前可以通过直接抗病毒药物治疗HCV感染,但是患肝细胞癌的风险仍然存在。HCV诱发肝细胞癌是一个多步骤过程,其可能是通过病毒因子直接作用和/或通过引起慢性炎症诱发肝癌。因此,需要更好地了解HCV诱发肝细胞癌的分子机制,为肝细胞癌的防治提供研究基础。本文就近年来国内外对丙型肝炎病毒直接作用诱发肝细胞癌的分子机制进行综述,具体从血管生成、细胞凋亡、细胞增殖、上皮 间质转化、脂肪变性和氧化应激6个方面进行阐述,以期更好地了解HCV诱发肝细胞癌的分子机制,为肝细胞癌的防治提供研究基础。     

丙型肝炎病毒感染与肝细胞癌相关关系的研究进展

世界上有数亿的人口患有丙型肝炎,而丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）的感染易转为慢性,引起肝细胞炎性坏死及再生,导致肝纤维化、硬化甚至肝细胞癌（HCC）,是危害人类健康的一个重要卫生问题。HCV的感染可导致HCC的发生,但HCV相关性HCC的发生机制尚不清楚。免疫逃避机制是感染慢性化的一个重要原因,病毒通过其基因组编码的蛋白使肝细胞发生转化,可能是肝细胞癌变的重要机制。     

丙型肝炎病毒感染与肝细胞癌相关关系的研究进展

世界上有数亿的人口患有丙型肝炎,而丙型肝炎病毒(HCV)的感染易转为慢性,引起肝细胞炎性坏死及再生,导致肝纤维化、硬化甚至肝细胞癌(HCC),是危害人类健康的一个重要卫生问题。HCV的感染可导致HCC的发生,但HCV相关性HCC的发生机制尚不清楚。免疫逃避机制是感染慢性化的一个重要原因,病毒通过其基因组编码的蛋白使肝细胞发生转化,可能是肝细胞癌变的重要机制。     

丙型肝炎病毒诱发肝细胞肝癌的分子机制

肝细胞肝癌(hepatocellular carcinoma,HCC)是影响人类健康的恶性肿瘤之一,丙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis C virus,HCV)是其主要致病因素之一。HCV诱发的HCC是由病毒和宿主免疫介导的多步骤复杂过程,从慢性炎症发展到肝硬化和肝癌,病毒和宿主因子共同参与此过程。其中,宿主基因突变是导致HCC发生的危险因素之一,全面了解HCV诱发HCC的分子机制将有助于解决此问题。     

丙型肝炎病毒受体SR-BⅠ的研究进展

丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）是经血液传播而引起急、慢性肝炎的主要致病因子之一,是导致肝硬化、肝细胞癌等终末期肝病的主要原因。位于HCV包膜E2蛋白N端的第1高变区（HVR1）,是介导E2蛋白与B族I型清道夫受体（SR-BⅠ）结合及HCV感染细胞的关键肽段。研究表明,HCV可能利用了SR-BⅠ受体的某些生理功能入侵细胞,进行细胞-细胞间传播。因此,HVR1与SR-BⅠ相互作用的研究除了能深入了解HCV吸附和入侵细胞机制,同时也为治疗和预防HCV感染提供了新的靶点。     

丙型肝炎病毒蛋白作用于细胞信号转导途径的研究进展

细胞信号转导异常往往与人类疾病的发生、发展密切相关。一些病毒致病和感染机制即为病毒抗原蛋白作用宿主细胞信号转导途径,导致宿主细胞内信号转导发生紊乱。丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）是引发慢性丙型肝炎,导致肝硬化和肝细胞癌发生的主要病原体,但目前HCV的致病机制与宿主内持续感染机制尚不清楚。HCV致病机制可能与HCV表达的蛋白质干扰宿主细胞信号转导途径而导致异常的细胞信号转导有关。研究HCV蛋白对宿主细胞信号转导途径的影响不仅有助于阐明其致病机制,还能为新药设计和寻找新的治疗方法提供新思路和新靶点。本文主要综述了近年来国内外有关HCV蛋白作用细胞信号转导途径的研究进展。     

丙型肝炎炎症发生与细胞信号通路异常

丙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis C virus,HCV)感染是引起慢性丙型肝炎的直接原因,炎症的持续发生会导致肝纤维化、硬化甚至是肝癌的出现。炎症发生通常与细胞信号通路异常相关,病毒感染后病毒蛋白干扰宿主细胞正常的信号转导途径,使得促炎和炎症相关分子异常表达,导致炎症的发生。了解HCV感染后炎症发生的分子机制将有助于防止丙型肝炎炎症的恶化,为临床抗病毒治疗提供参考。     

HCV全长NS3基因表达及在抗体检测中的应用

丙型肝炎病毒(HCV)是引起非甲非乙型肝炎的主要病原因子.被HCV感染的病例中,超过50%以上会引起持续性感染、慢性肝炎,最终可能引起肝硬化和肝细胞癌[1].HCV严重威胁人类健康,但目前对丙肝患者尚缺乏有效的治疗手段,因此,严格把好血源关,提高对丙肝患者检出的灵敏度,是阻止丙肝血源传播的有效手段.     

四环素诱导的丙型肝炎病毒非结构蛋白5B稳定细胞株的构建和检测

丙型肝炎病毒(HCV)感染个体后在宿主细胞内长时间保持低水平复制,与慢性肝炎、肝硬化及肝细胞肝癌的发生密切相关.目前,HCV感染后肝细胞发生转化的具体机制还不清楚.非结构蛋白5B(NS5B)是HCV编码的非结构蛋白之一,具有RNA依赖的RNA聚合酶活性(RdRp),是病毒复制所需的关键酶.除参与病毒复制外,NS5B通过...     

河北省丙型肝炎病毒基因分型研究

丙型肝炎病毒 (Hepatitis C virus, HCV)感染是输血后肝炎的主要原因[1],主要通过输血或使用污染的血制品传播[2],且与肝硬化和肝细胞癌的发生有密切关系.     

Serum cytokine levels as putative prognostic markers in the progression of chronic HCV hepatitis to cirrhosis

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can present as an acute manifestation, and can lead to severe complications such as chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It represents a global health problem because there is no vaccine currently available. Cytokines play an important role in viral clearance, infection control, inflammation, regeneration and fibrosis, and also are implicated in the pathological processes occurring in the liver during viral infection. Immunological markers of chronic HCV hepatitis progression as compared to cirrhosis and HCC would be extremely useful, particularly for distinguishing between the molecules produced during HCV-induced chronic inflammation and those secreted during cirrhosis and HCC. In this work, we evaluated the serum levels of several cytokines, chemokines and growth factors in 30 patients affected by chronic HCV (HC), 30 patients affected by HCV-related cirrhosis (LC) and 20 healthy, control subjects. We used a multiplex biometric ELISA-based immunoassay in order to identify molecules that might be useful for monitoring the progression of HCV to liver cirrhosis and, possibly, to cancer. Our results show that some pro-inflammatory molecules are significantly up-regulated, and play a role as immunological markers in the intermediate steps towards liver cancer, and that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a specific marker of liver cirrhosis. Finally, these data will be used to define a cytokinome profile, which might prove useful for studies involving the transition of chronic inflammation to neoplastic processes.     

Hepatitis C virus-induced cancer stem cell-like signatures in cell culture and murine tumor xenografts

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a prominent risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Similar to most solid tumors, HCCs are believed to contain poorly differentiated cancer stem cell-like cells (CSCs) that initiate tumorigenesis and confer resistance to chemotherapy. In these studies, we demonstrate that the expression of an HCV subgenomic replicon in cultured cells results in the acquisition of CSC traits. These traits include enhanced expression of doublecortin and CaM kinase-like-1 (DCAMKL-1), Lgr5, CD133, α-fetoprotein, cytokeratin-19 (CK19), Lin28, and c-Myc. Conversely, curing of the replicon from these cells results in diminished expression of these factors. The putative stem cell marker DCAMKL-1 is also elevated in response to the overexpression of a cassette of pluripotency factors. The DCAMKL-1-positive cells isolated from hepatoma cell lines by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) form spheroids in Matrigel. The HCV RNA abundance and NS5B levels are significantly reduced by the small interfering RNA (siRNA)-led depletion of DCAMKL-1. We further demonstrate that HCV replicon-expressing cells initiate distinct tumor phenotypes compared to the tumors initiated by parent cells lacking the replicon. This HCV-induced phenotype is characterized by high-level expression/coexpression of DCAMKL-1, CK19, α-fetoprotein, and active c-Src. The results obtained by the analysis of liver tissues from HCV-positive patients and liver tissue microarrays reiterate these observations. In conclusion, chronic HCV infection appears to predispose cells toward the path of acquiring cancer stem cell-like traits by inducing DCAMKL-1 and hepatic progenitor and stem cell-related factors. DCAMKL-1 also represents a novel cellular target for combating HCV-induced hepatocarcinogenesis.     

Hepatitis C virus infection induces apoptosis through a Bax-triggered, mitochondrion-mediated, caspase 3-dependent pathway

We previously reported that cells harboring the hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA replicon as well as those expressing HCV NS3/4A exhibited increased sensitivity to suboptimal doses of apoptotic stimuli to undergo mitochondrion-mediated apoptosis (Y. Nomura-Takigawa, et al., J. Gen. Virol. 87:1935-1945, 2006). Little is known, however, about whether or not HCV infection induces apoptosis of the virus-infected cells. In this study, by using the chimeric J6/JFH1 strain of HCV genotype 2a, we demonstrated that HCV infection induced cell death in Huh7.5 cells. The cell death was associated with activation of caspase 3, nuclear translocation of activated caspase 3, and cleavage of DNA repair enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, which is known to be an important substrate for activated caspase 3. These results suggest that HCV-induced cell death is, in fact, apoptosis. Moreover, HCV infection activated Bax, a proapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family, as revealed by its conformational change and its increased accumulation on mitochondrial membranes. Concomitantly, HCV infection induced disruption of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, followed by mitochondrial swelling and release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. HCV infection also caused oxidative stress via increased production of mitochondrial superoxide. On the other hand, HCV infection did not mediate increased expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) or GRP94, which are known as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced proteins; this result suggests that ER stress is not primarily involved in HCV-induced apoptosis in our experimental system. Taken together, our present results suggest that HCV infection induces apoptosis of the host cell through a Bax-triggered, mitochondrion-mediated, caspase 3-dependent pathway(s).     

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) employs multiple strategies to subvert the host innate antiviral response

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious global health problem which accounts for approximately 40% of chronic liver diseases worldwide. HCV frequently establishes a persistent infection, although it is recognized and targeted by innate immunity as well as cellular and humoral immune mechanisms. This suggests that HCV has developed powerful strategies to escape elimination by innate and adaptive immunity. HCV-induced liver injury is thought to be mainly immune-mediated rather than due to direct cytopathic effects of the virus. Hence, therapeutic strategies should target those mechanisms favoring viral persistence since unspecific enhancement of host antiviral immunity may theoretically also promote liver injury. The present review summarizes our current understanding of how the hepatitis C virus interferes with the innate antiviral host-response to establish persistent infection.