A translational stop in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore codon 28 and specific changes in the core promoter region of the X gene have been suggested to influence the level of circulating HBeAg in patients. We analysed the core promoter region and precore sequences from 59 HBV strains (including 14 from the databank) of different genotypes and from patients with different HBeAg/anti-HBe patte...

TATA-binding protein-associated factors (TAFIIs) within TFIID control differential gene transcription through interactions with both activators and core promoter elements. In particular, TAFII150 contributes to initiator-dependent transcription through an unknown mechanism. Here, we address whether TAFIIs within TFIID are sufficient, in conjunction with highly purified general transcription fac...

Colorectal tumorigenesis is characterized by the sequential inactivation of a series of tumor suppressor genes (microsatellite-stable tumors) and genetic or epigenetic alterations in mismatch repair genes in nonpoliposic hereditary tumours and 13% to 15% of sporadic colorectal cancer [high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) tumors]. We hypothesized a molecular mechanism for MSI-H colorectal tum...

SUMMARY The impact of mutations in the precore and basal core promoter (BCP) regions of the hepatitis B virus on the course of chronic liver disease is not well established. We sought to examine the relationship of these characteristics to the clinical expression of liver disease in patients infected with genotype D chronic hepatitis B (CHB). BCP and precore mutations in 110 patients with genot...

To investigate the underlying mechanism regulating cardiac gene expression, transgenic mice carrying the rat cardiac troponin T proximal promoter (-497 bp from the transcriptional start site) fused to a LacZ or chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene were analyzed. The LacZ expression pattern throughout development was very similar to that of the endogenous cardiac troponin T gene...

Despite several studies regarding the correlation between serum HBsAg titers and viral loads, the association remains uncertain. Eighty-nine individuals were selected randomly from a Chinese cohort of 2,258 subjects infected persistently with hepatitis B virus (HBV) for cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. Viral loads of mutant HBV are lower than those of wild type HBV. The serum HBsAg ti...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes/subgenotypes and their related mutations in the HBV genome have been reported to be associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To determine the HCC-associated mutations of the HBV genome in the entire X, core promoter, and precore/core regions, a cross-sectional control study was conducted comparing 80 Japanese patients infected with HBV C2 and suffering f...

Previously we reported that the exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection serves as a major threat among the treatment naive HIV infected population of eastern India. Hence, molecular characterization of these strains is of utmost importance in order to identify clinically significant HBV mutations. A total of 85 treatment naive HIV/HBV co-infected participants were included of whom the com...

The initiation of mRNA synthesis in eukaryotic cells is a complex and highly regulated process that requires the assembly of general transcription factors and RNAP II (RNA polymerase II; also abbreviated as Pol II) into a pre-initiation complex at the core promoter. The core promoter is defined as the minimal DNA region that is sufficient to direct low levels of activator-independent (basal) tr...

Transcriptional enhancers within the long terminal repeats of murine leukemia viruses are major determinants of the pathogenic properties of these viruses. Mutations were introduced into the adjacent binding sites for three transcription factors within the enhancer of the T-cell-lymphomagenic virus SL3-3. The sites that were tested were, in 5'-to-3' order, a binding site for core binding factor...