background the hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection has been identified as a leading cause of progressive liver diseases worldwide. despite new treatment strategies, pegylated interferon alfa-2a (peg-ifnα-2a), in combination with ribavirin (rbv), still represents the gold standard of therapy for hepatitis c in developing countries. results in this study, a significant association was observed betw...

BACKGROUND The measurement of hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV-coreAg) has been shown to be an indicator of active HCV infection. The aim of the present study was 1) to investigate the stability and effectiveness of HCV-coreAg and HCV-RNA quantification in HCV infection with or without HIV-1 coinfection, 2) to explore the association between the HCV-coreAg/HCV-RNA (Ag/RNA) ratio and the immu...

results phylogenetic analysis of the partial ns5b region demonstrated the relatedness of isolate fsm165 to the new subtype reported from iran in 2006. moreover, some core/e1 and ns5b sequences that had a high level of similarity with fsm165 isolate were found through searching the hcv database. these sequences were previously either misclassified or could not be accurately classified. phylogene...

HCV-1 produces a novel protein, known as ARFP, F, or core 1. This protein is encoded by an open reading frame (ORF) that overlaps the core gene in the 1 frame (core 1 ORF). In vitro this protein is produced by a ribosomal frameshift mechanism. However, similar studies failed to detect the ARFP/F/core 1 protein in the HCV-1a (H) isolate. To clarify this issue and to elucidate the functions of th...

Signal-peptide peptidase (SPP) is an intramembrane protease that participates in the production of the mature core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Here we show that SPP inhibition reduces the production of infectious HCV particles and pathogenesis. The immature core protein produced in SPP-knockout cells or by treatment with an SPP inhibitor is quickly degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome p...

BACKGROUND The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein has been implicated as a potential oncogene or a cofactor in HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Overactivation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling is a major factor in oncogenesis of HCC. However, the pathogenesis of HCV core-associated Wnt/β-catenin activation remains to be further characterized....

context hcv infection is strongly associated with development of insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes, however molecular mechanism of these associations is not known. the aim of this review was to conduct a comprehensive literature search to understand the nature of the association between hepatitis c virus (hcv) infection and insulin resistance (ir). we also explored the role of hcv core pro...

A subpopulation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein in cells harboring full-length HCV replicons is biochemically associated with detergent-resistant membranes (DRMs) in a manner similar to that of markers of classical lipid rafts. Core protein does not, however, colocalize in immunofluorescence studies with classical plasma membrane raft markers, such as caveolin-1 and the B subunit of cho...

Hepatitis C virus infection is a persistent worldwide public health concern. The prevalence of HCV infection is much higher in patients on chronic haemodialysis (HD) than in the general population. HCV infection can detrimentally affect patients throughout the spectrum of chronic kidney disease. Despite the control of blood products, hepatitis C virus transmission is still being observed among ...

CD4+ Treg-cells (regulatory T-cells) probably contribute to the impaired virus-specific T-cell responses in chronic HCV (hepatitis C virus) infection; however, their antigen-specificity has remained elusive. In the present study, we analysed peripheral blood CD4+ Treg-cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C and subjects with self-limited HCV infection and characterized individual Treg-cell c...