Hepatitis B Virus Infection, Genetic Susceptibility and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

• Main Authors: Juan Wen, Yao Liu, Ci Song, Zhibin Hu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Biological and Medical Journals Publishing House Co., Limited 2015-12-01
• Series: Infectious Diseases and Translational Medicine
• Subjects: HBV genotypes; HBV mutations; Genetic variations; Interactions; Hepatocellular Carcinoma
• Online Access: http://www.tran-med.com/EN/abstract/abstract13.shtml#

Liver cancer is a sever cancer burden in the world, especially in developing countries. Its late diagnosis and high mortality rate urges early prediction. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the major histopathological type of liver cancer. Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a well-established risk factor for HCC. On one side, HBV sequence variation may influence the outcome of HBV infection and the development of HCC. At least ten HBV genotypes (A to J) are identified. Several HBV genotypes and mutations in pre-S and pre-core/core promoter regions are closely associated with HCC pathogenesis, and have been regarded as biomarkers to predict the occurrence of HCC. On the other side, only a small fraction of chronic hepatitis B patients developed HCC, and some HCC cases were diagnosed with no known predisposing risk factors, suggesting host genetic variations may also play important roles in the carcinogenesis. In this review, we summarized current findings of HBV genotypes and mutations, host genetic variations and their interactions involved in HCC carcinogenesis. Understanding the key viral and host genetic variations is essential for generating effective predictive biomarkers for HCC development.