Hepatitis B virus regulates Raf1 expression in HepG2.2.15 cells by enhancing its promoter activity.

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Arch Virol. 2011 Jan 5. [Epub ahead of print]

Hepatitis B virus regulates Raf1 expression in HepG2.2.15 cells by enhancing its

promoter activity.

Tian Y, Hu Y, Wang Z, Chen K, Zhang L, Wang L, Ren M, Huang A, Tang H.

Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology on Infectious Diseases, Ministry of

Education, Second Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing,

400016, China.

Abstract

Raf1 kinase is a central component of many signaling pathways that are involved

in normal cell growth and oncogenic transformation. The expression of Raf1 is

significantly increased in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV is a major risk

factor for HCC. HBx protein can increase the expression of Raf1; however, the

mechanism of how HBV regulates Raf1 expression is still unknown. In this study,

we showed the Raf1 expression was significantly higher in HepG2.2.15 cells than

that in HepG2 cells in vitro. HBV could up-regulate Raf1 expression by enhancing

the activity of its promoter in a dose-dependent manner, and HBs and HBx may be

involved in this process. After silencing HBs and HBx by using RNA interference,

the expression of Raf1 in HepG2.2.15 cells could be significantly inhibited.

These results might provide useful information for understanding the mechanism

of HCC induced by HBV infection.

PMID: 21207082 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]