Molecular Aspects of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Caused by Hepatitis C Virus
Ali Karami
1
, *
,
Seyed Moayed Alavian
2
,
Ali Najafi
2
and
Mohammad Javad Hosseini
2
1 Research Center of Molecular biology, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Karami@bmsu.ac.ir, Tehran, IR.Iran
2 Liver and Gastroentestinal Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences and Tehran Hepatitis Center, Tehran, IR.Iran
*
Research Center of Molecular biology, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Karami@bmsu.ac.ir, Tehran, IR.Iran. Tel: +98 21 88039883. Fax: +98 21 88057023. Email:
Karami@bmsu.ac.ir
Hepatitis Monthly: ,
6 (2) ; 75-82 Article Type: Review Article
Received:
May 12, 2006
Accepted:
May 25, 2006
To Cite:
Karami
A, Alavian
S, Najafi
A, Hosseini
M. Molecular Aspects of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Caused by Hepatitis C Virus,
Hepat Mon.
Online ahead of Print
;6(2):75-82.
Abstract
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small, enveloped, single-stranded positive sense RNA virus with a diameter of about 50 nm belonging to the Hepacivirus genus of the family Flaviviridae. The HCV genome is translated to produce a single protein of around 3011 amino acids. This "polyprotein" is then proteolytically processed by viral and cellular proteases to produce structural (core protein, envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2, ARFP/F protein, p7) and nonstructural (NS2-3 autoprotease, NS3-4A, NS4B, NS5A, NS5B) proteins. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignant tumors worldwide, with increasing incidence. It is estimated that approximately 300-400 thousands of people in the IRAN and 4 million in the United States are persistently infected. It is important for tumor control to identify the factors that predispose patients to death. A large number of molecular factors have been shown to associate with the invasiveness of HCC, and have potential prognostic significance.
© 0, Hepatitis Monthly. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License .
Readers' Comments