• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2016

Hepatitis B virus infection can cause hepatic fibrosis leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. However the mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we found that Hepatitis B virus X-protein (HBx) increases vimentin, fibronectin, slug, snail and NOX4 expression. Because NOX4-mediated reactive oxygen species can increase slug and snail, which can induce fibrosis, HBx may be a key regulator of hepatic fibrosis development via NOX4 induction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.39-40
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• 1993

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)is a member of the Hepadna virus family whose members share a characteristic virion structure and genome size, around 3.2kb in a paritially double-stranded form. The genome of HBV contains four overlapping open reading frames designated as P(polymerase). C(core), S(surface antigen)and X. The X gene has potential to encode 154 amino acids protein.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2003

Background: Intracellular antibody specific to hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) might be useful for studying the role of HBx in hepatocellular carcinogenesis and HBV replication. Methods: With variable region genes for H7 monoclonal anti-HBx Ab, we constructed a vector for bacterial expression of single chain Ab (scFv) and a vector for eukaryotic cell expression of it. The expression of H7 scFv and its binding activity against HBx was examined by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence microscopy. Results: H7 scFv expressed in bacterial cells retained reactivity to HBx. We demonstrated its intracytoplasmic expression in CosM6 eukaryotic cells. Conclusion: This is the first study showing the expression of intracellular anti-HBx Ab in eukaryotic cells. H7 scFv may be a good tool to study the function of HBx in HBV infection.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.144-144
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• 2003

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.521-528
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• 1999

The folding of recombinant hepatitis B virus X-protein (rHBx) solubilized from Escherichia coli inclusion bodies was investigated. By sequential dialysis of urea, rHBx was folded into its native structure, which was demonstrated by the efficacy of its transcriptional activation of the adenovirus major late promoter (MLP), fluorescence spectroscopy, and circular dichroism (CD) analysis. The decrease in CD values at 220 nm and a corresponding blue shift of the intrinsic fluorescence emission confirmed the ability of rHBx to refold in lower concentrations of urea, yielding the active protein. Equilibrium and kinetic studies of the refolding of rHBx were carried out by tryptophan fluorescence measurements. From the biphasic nature of the fluorescence curves, the existence of stable intermediate states in the renaturation process was inferred. Reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) analysis further demonstrated the existence of these intermediates and their apparent compactness.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.766-771
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• 2007

The co-infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is associated with a more severe liver disease and increased frequency in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma com-pared to those with single infection. Here, we demonstrated that HBV X protein (HBx) and HCV Core cooperatively up-regulated the level of p53 in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. The elevated p53 subsequently stimulated the expression of proapoptotic Bax whereas it repressed the expression of antiapoptotic Bcl2. These effects, however, were not observed in p53-negative Hep3B cells. Consistently to their cooperative regulation of apoptotic effectors, HBx and HCV Core additively stimulated cisplatin-mediated apoptotic cell death of HepG2 but not of Hep3B cells. These results may help to explain the development of a more severe liver disease in patients co-infection with HBV and HCV as well as some contradictory results on the roles of HBx and Core in apoptosis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1385-1389
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• 2005

Human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a pathogen related to the development of liver diseases including chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the efficient methods to suppress HBV replication have not been developed yet. Therefore, we have used RNA interference (RNAi) as a potential tool for the suppression of HBV replication. Here, we designed a 21 nt small intefering dsRNA (siRNA) against hepatitis B virus X (HBx) RNA with 3' overhanging ends derived from T7 promoter. It has been reported that HBV X protein plays an important role in HBV gene expression and viral replication. The suppression of HBx gene expression by the 21 nt siRNA was investigated by Northern blot analysis and chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) assay. The level of HBx mRNA was decreased by siRNA in a dose-dependent manner. We also found that the 21 nt siRNA inhibited the HBV replication in hepatocellular carcinoma cell.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.23-26
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• 1999

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.529-536
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• 2005

Viral infection causes stress to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The response to endoplasmic reticulum stress, known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), is designed to eliminate misfolded proteins and allow the cell to recover. The role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-structural protein NS4B, a component of the HCV replicons that induce UPR, is incompletely understood. We demonstrate that HCV NS4B could induce activating transcription factor (ATF6) and inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), to favor the HCV subreplicon and HCV viral replication. HCV NS4B activated the IRE1 pathway, as indicated by splicing of X box-binding protein (Xbp-1) mRNA. However, transcriptional activation of the XBP-1 target gene, EDEM (ER degradation-enhancing $\alpha-mannosidase-like$ protein, a protein degradation factor), was inhibited. These results imply that NS4B might induce UPR through ATF6 and IRE1-XBP1 pathways, but might also modify the outcome to benefit HCV or HCV subreplicon replication.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.175-179
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• 1996

Viral surface proteins are known to play an essential role in attachment of the virus particle to the host cell membrane. In case of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) several reports have described potential receptors on the target cell side, but no definite receptor protein has been isolated yet. As for the viral side, it has been suggested that the preS region of the envelope protein, especially the preS1 region, is involved in binding of HBV to the host cell. In this study, preS1 region was recombinantly expressed in the form of a maltose binding protein (MBP) fusion protein and used to identify and visualize the expression of putative HBV receptor(s) on the host cell. Using laser scanned confocal microscopy and by FACS analysis, MBP-preS1 proteins were shown to bind to the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 in a receptor-ligand specific manner. The binding kinetic of MBP-preS1 to its cellular receptor was shown to be temperature and time dependent. In cells permeabilized with Triton X-100 and treated with the fusion protein, a specific staining of the nuclear membrane could be observed. To determine the precise location of the receptor binding site within the preS1 region, several short overlapping peptides from this region were synthesized and used in a competition assay. In this way the receptor binding epitope in preS1 was revealed to be amino acid residues 27 to 51, which is in agreement with previous reports. These results confirm the significance of the preS1 region in virus attachment in general, and suggest an internalization pathway mediated by direct attachment of the viral particle to the target cell membrane.