Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. HCV core protein is involved in nucleocapsid formation, but it also interacts with multiple cytoplasmic and nuclear molecules and plays a crucial role in the development of liver disease and hepatocarcinogenesis. The core protein is found mostly in the cytoplasm during HCV infection, but also in the nucleus i...

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is responsible for the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV core protein plays not only a structural role in the virion morphogenesis by encapsidating a virus RNA genome but also a non-structural role in HCV-induced pathogenesis by blocking innate immunity. Especially, it has been shown to regulate JAK-STAT signaling pathway ...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and B-cell lymphomas in a significant number of patients. Previously we have shown that HCV infection causes double-stranded DNA breaks and enhances the mutation frequency of cellular genes, including proto-oncogenes and immunoglobulin genes. To determine the mechanisms, we studied in vitro HCV infection of cell cultu...

It has been recognized that the HCV (hepatitis C virus) core protein plays an important role in hepatocarcinogenesis. The functional inactivation of the Rb pathway appears to be a major event for multi-step cancer carcinogenesis. To elucidate the role of the HCV core protein in hepatocarcinogenesis, we investigated the effect of the HCV core protein on the Rb pathway in both Rat-1 cell lines, s...

Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can cause hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a significant proportion (≈ 20 %) of individuals with chronic HCV infection (CHC). Currently, CHC is treated with peginterferon and ribavirin, which depending on genotype approximately 50 to 70% of patients are cured. The so-called “extrahepatic HCV infection” or viral replication in regio...

IFN-alpha production by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) is critical in antiviral immunity. In the present study, we evaluated the IFN-alpha-producing capacity of PDCs of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in treatment-naive, sustained responder, and nonresponder patients. IFN-alpha production was tested in PBMCs or isolated PDCs after TLR9 stimulation. Treatment-naive p...

High hepatitis C virus (HCV) genetic diversity impacts infectivity/pathogenicity, influencing chronic liver disease progression associated with fibrosis degrees and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV core protein is crucial in cell-growth regulation and host-gene expression. Liver fibrosis is accelerated by unknown mechanisms in human immunodeficiency virus-1- (HIV-1-) coinfected individuals. We aim...

In the absence of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) culture system, the use of a Semliki Forest virus replicon expressing genes encoding HCV structural proteins that assemble into HCV-like particles provides an opportunity to study HCV morphogenesis. Using this system, we showed that the HCV core protein constitutes the budding apparatus of the virus and that its targeting to the endoplasmic reticulum ...

UNLABELLED Hepatocellular steatosis is common in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Steatosis can be considered as a true cytopathic lesion induced by hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 3, suggesting that one or more viral proteins produced during genotype 3 infection are involved in the steatogenic process, while the same proteins produced during infection by other genotypes are not. We examined...