Hepatitis C Virus Core Gene Polymorphism in Cases of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the common sequelae of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Although HCV core protein displayed tumorigenic activities in cell culture and experimental animals, its clinical impact on HCC development in humans is still unclear. We aimed to map differences in the viral core gene sequences in cases (HCC patients) and controls (HCV patients without HCC). Direct sequencing of HCV core gene from 30 HCC patients and 30 controls was done to compare with each other. This study showed that sequences of HCV in patients with HCC differed from those of controls; specifically, one polymorphism at amino acid position 71 was particularly strongly associated with HCC as it was present in 33.3% of patients with HCC compared to only 6.7% of controls. These results highlight that HCV core gene sequence data might provide useful information about the risk of developing HCC.