BACKGROUND Dysfunctioning of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) in acute myeloid leukemia can be caused, amongst others, by mutations in the encoding gene (CEBPA) and by promoter hypermethylation. CEBPA-mutated acute myeloid leukemia is associated with a favorable outcome, but this may be restricted to the case of double mutations in CEBPA in adult acute myeloid leukemia. In pediatric ac...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis are important causes of mortality worldwide. Persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of these diseases. Double mutations in the basal core promoter (BCP) (A1762T and G1764A) and precore (pre-C) (G1896A) regions of the virus are associated with progression to HCC. The current study is aimed at developing a simple method for scree...

BACKGROUND Mutations in basal core promoter (BCP) and precore regions of hepatitis B virus (HBV) are associated with course and treatment outcomes of chronic HBV infection. While BCP and precore mutation analysis have been carried out in adult patients between different genotypes, this analysis has rarely been performed for chronically infected children. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was t...

In chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, variants with mutations in the basal core promoter (BCP) and precore region predominate and associate with more severe disease forms. Studies on their effect on viral replication remain controversial. Increasing evidence shows that epigenetic modifications of cccDNA regulate HBV replication and disease outcome. Here we determined the transcription a...

We previously identified (Hwang DY and Ismail-Beigi F. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 281: C1365-C1372, 2001) a 44-bp GC-rich segment of the rat proximal glucose transporter (Glut)1 promoter, located at -104 to -61, as necessary for basal transcription of the Glut1 gene. Using deletion and mutational analysis and expression of transfected reporter constructs, we report in the present study that muta...

The glial cell specificity of the human papovavirus JC (JCV), an etiologic agent for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, is thought to be due to the presence of both positive and negative regulatory elements upstream of the TATA region within the JCV promoter. Here we report that the JCV minimal core promoter, containing only the TATA box and an 8-bp poly(T) region immediately upstream,...

Alignment of sigma 54-dependent promoters indicates conservation of two sequence elements. Six nucleotides in the downstream -12 element were mutated individually to each nonconsensus nucleotide. mRNA levels were measured in vivo for each promoter under strongly activating conditions. The results showed that the consensus sequence was not the strongest promoter. Instead, the -12 consensus eleme...

INTRODUCTION Manifestations of HBV infection differ in chronic and acute phases. Therefore, identifying the determinants such as mutations has a vital role in the treatment of the disease. A dual transversion in the basal core promoter (BCP) region is common among HBV patients. Thus, the present study was conducted with the objective of determining the prevalence of basal core promoter (BCP) mu...

Functional analysis of naturally occurring hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations is crucial in understanding their impact on disease. We have recently identified two mutations in the HBV core promoter of an HBV strain associated with fulminant hepatitis leading to highly (15-fold) enhanced replication as a result of increased viral encapsidation of pregenomic RNA into the core particles (T. F. Baum...