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Abstract
Life Sciences & Biomedicine Microbiology Parasitology Science & Technology Virology
Globally, a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains the leading cause of primary liver cancer. The mechanisms leading to the development of HBV-associated liver cancer remain incompletely understood. In part, this is because studies have been limited by the lack of effective model systems that are both readily available and mimic the cellular environment of a normal hepatocyte. Additionally, many studies have focused on single, specific factors or pathways that may be affected by HBV, without addressing cell physiology as a whole. Here, we apply RNA-seq technology to investigate transcriptome-wide, HBV-mediated changes in gene expression to identify single factors and pathways as well as networks of genes and pathways that are affected in the context of HBV replication. Importantly, these studies were conducted in an ex vivo model of cultured primary hepatocytes, allowing for the transcriptomic characterization of this model system and an investigation of early HBV-mediated effects in a biologically relevant context. We analyzed differential gene expression within the context of time-mediated gene-expression changes and show that in the context of HBV replication a number of genes and cellular pathways are altered, including those associated with metabolism, cell cycle regulation, and lipid biosynthesis. Multiple analysis pipelines, as well as qRT-PCR and an independent, replicate RNA-seq analysis, were used to identify and confirm differentially expressed genes. HBV-mediated alterations to the transcriptome that we identified likely represent early changes to hepatocytes following an HBV infection, suggesting potential targets for early therapeutic intervention. Overall, these studies have produced a valuable resource that can be used to expand our understanding of the complex network of host-virus interactions and the impact of HBV-mediated changes to normal hepatocyte physiology on viral replication.
Transcriptome-Wide Analysis of Hepatitis B Virus-Mediated Changes to Normal Hepatocyte Gene Expression
Creators
Jason Lamontagne - Drexel University
Joshua C. Mell - Drexel University
Michael J. Bouchard - Drexel University
Publication Details
PLoS pathogens, v 12(2), pp e1005438-e1005438
Publisher
Public Library Science
Number of pages
35
Grant note
4100057658 / Pennsylvania state CURE grant
F31CA171712 / Ruth L. Kirschstein (F31) Predoctoral Fellowship; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA
F31CA171712 / NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Resource Type
Journal article
Language
English
Academic Unit
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Microbiology and Immunology
Web of Science ID
WOS:000378152900032
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84959457692
Other Identifier
991019169638004721
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