• 대한의생명과학회지
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.209-214
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• 2003

To determine the clinical usefulness of Immuno Blot test, 160 samples from the patients with chronic HCV infection were analyzed. And serotyping and line probe assay were performed to evaluate the distribution of hepatitis C virus genotypes in Korean isolates. In this group, as a result of genotyping type 1 band 2a, the serotype I and II were the most common source of HCV infection. There were no significant difference in response to the alpha-interferon HCV infection treatment with the subtype 1 b or 2a. And the serotypes of NS4 peptides were compared with the genotypes to evaluate their clinical usefulness. Among 49 cases studied for genotypes and serotype, genotype 1 b, 1 b/2b, 2a, 2a/2c and 2b were 51.0％, 2.0％, 34.6％, 8.1％ and 4.0％, respectively. The serotypes I and II were 57.1％ and 42.8％, respectively; they were matched with genotypes in 85.7％ and seemed to be easy to perform. To monitor their performing progress or treatment response, serotype test was made before the genotype test. The Result showed that there was no significant difference in response to the alpha-interferon HCV infection treatment with the subtype 1 b or 2a in Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• 제36권6호
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• pp.538-544
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• 2003

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major causative agent of chronic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The development of alternative antiviral therapies is warranted because current treatments for the HCV infection affect only a limited number of patients and lead to significant toxicities. The HCV genome is exclusively present in the RNA form; therefore, ribozyme strategies to target certain HCV sequences have been proposed as anti-HCV treatments. In this study, we determined which regions of the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of HCV are accessible to ribozymes by employing an RNA mapping strategy that is based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library. We then discovered that the loop regions of the domain IIIb of HCV IRES appeared to be particularly accessible. Moreover, to verify if the target sites that were predicted to be accessible are truly the most accessible, we assessed the ribozyme activities by comparing not only the trans-splicing activities in vitro but also the trans-cleavage activities in cells of several ribozymes that targeted different sites. The ribozyme that could target the most accessible site identified by mapping studies was then the most active with high fidelity in cells as well as in vitro. These results demonstrate that the RNA mapping strategy represents an effective method to determine the accessible regions of target RNAs and have important implications for the development of various antiviral therapies which are based on RNA such as ribozyme, antisense, or siRNA.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제45권3호
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• pp.148-157
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• 2022

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease and is highly dependent on cellular proteins for viral propagation. Using protein microarray analysis, we identified 90 cellular proteins as HCV nonstructural 5A (NS5A) interacting partners, and selected telomere length regulation protein (TEN1) for further study. TEN1 forms a heterotrimeric complex with CTC and STN1, which is essential for telomere protection and maintenance. Telomere length decreases in patients with active HCV, chronic liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the molecular mechanism of telomere length shortening in HCV-associated disease is largely unknown. In the present study, protein interactions between NS5A and TEN1 were confirmed by immunoprecipitation assays. Silencing of TEN1 reduced both viral RNA and protein expression levels of HCV, while ectopic expression of the siRNA-resistant TEN1 recovered the viral protein level, suggesting that TEN1 was specifically required for HCV propagation. Importantly, we found that TEN1 is re-localized from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in HCV-infected cells. These data suggest that HCV exploits TEN1 to promote viral propagation and that telomere protection is compromised in HCV-infected cells. Overall, our findings provide mechanistic insight into the telomere shortening in HCV-infected cells.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.91-95
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• 2005

HCV의 가족 내 집단 감염은 드물게 발생하며 배우자에서 감염의 위험이 가장 높고 수직 감염의 빈도는 매우 낮게 보고되고 있다. 저자들은 환자와 환자의 어머니, 외할머니, 이모, 이종 사촌 언니에서 HCV 감염이 확인되어 가족 구성원의 50%가 HCV에 감염된 극히 드문 가족 내 집단 감염을 경험하였기에 문헌 고찰과 함께 보고한다.

• 한국수의병리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국수의병리학회 2003년도 추계학술대회초록집
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• pp.18-18
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• 2003

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become a major public health issue and is prevalent in most countries. HCV infection starts frequently without clinical symptoms, and progresses in the majority of patients (70 to 85％) to persistent viremia and chronic hepatitis including cirrhosis and hepatocellularcarcinoma (HCC) [1]. Alcohol is one of the independent cofactors accelerating the development of HCC in chronic hepatitis C patients. This is of great interest because a synergy between excessive alcohol intake and HCV infection has been documented in the development of HCC in chronic hepatitis C patients [2]. The aim of this study is to investigate liver changes in ethanol feeding HCV-transgenic (Tg) mouse and to establish an animal model system. (omitted)

• BMB Reports
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.59-62
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• 2000

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural 5B (NS5B) protein is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). To determine whether it can contribute to viral replication by interaction with cellular proteins, the yeast two-hybrid screening system was employed to screen a human liver cDNA library. Using the HCV NS5B as a bait, we have isolated positive clones encoding a cellular protein. The NS5B interacting protein, 5BIP, is a novel cellular protein of 170 amino acids. Interaction of the HCV NS5B protein with 5BIP was confirmed by a protein-protein blotting assay. Recently, we have demonstrated that NS5B possesses an RdRp activity and thus it is possible that 5BIP, in association with NS5B, plays a role in HCV replication.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.459-468
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• 2020

This study established a new polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) that combines with reverse transcription reactions for HCV detection targeting 5'UTR gene. To avoid cross-contamination of aerosols, an isothermal amplification tube (IAT), as a separate containment control, was used to judge the result. After optimizing the RT-PSR reaction system, its effectiveness and specificity were tested against 15 different virus strains which included 8 that were HCV positive and 7 as non-HCV controls. The results showed that the RT-PSR assay effectively detected all 8 HCV strains, and no false positives were found among the 7 non-HCV strains. The detection limit of our RT-PSR assay is comparable to the real-time RT-PCR, but is more sensitive than the RT-LAMP. The established RT-PSR assay was further evaluated for detection of HCV in clinical blood samples, and the resulting 80.25% detection rate demonstrated better or similar effectiveness compared to the RT-LAMP (79.63%) and real-time RT-PCR (80.25%). Overall, the results showed that the RT-PSR assay offers high specificity and sensitivity for HCV detection with great potential for screening HCV in clinical blood samples.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제42권1호
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• pp.32-37
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• 2010

The author was performed to investigation of current status of prevalence for anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) among the health-checkup adults in Jeonbuk province. A toal of 1,553 (male 1,046, female 507) serum samples were diagnosed by 3rd generation enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for anti-HCV. Total prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.9%, and prevalence of male and female were 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively. The prevalence of female was higher than male. According to ages group, prevalence of anti-HCV was highest in 60 age group, but it was not found in 20 age group. 14 samples with anti-HCV positive were diagnosed by EIA for hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBs Ag), by chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for serum albumin, alanine transaminase (ALT) and asparagine transaminase (AST). Positive for HBs Ag was not found. The mean of serum albumin levels was 4.5 g/dL, and mean of ALT and AST were 34.3 IU and 31.9 IU, respectively. Through this study, I know that the prevalence of anti-HCV among adults in Jeonbuk, and suggest that the positive of anti-HCV persons who have lower serum albumin, normal to mild elevations in serum enzymes are chronic hepatitis.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.364-369
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• 2002

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is remarkably efficient at establishing chronic infection. One of the reasons for this appears to be the suppression of the accessory cell function of professional antigen presenting cells. In the present study, the immunosuppressive activity of HCV protein was examined on dendritic cells (DCs) generated from mouse bone marrow progenitor cells in vitro. We found that the DCs forced to express HCV protein have defective allostimulatory ability. DCs expressing HCV protein were phenotypically indistinguishable from normal DCs. However, they were unable to produce IL-12 effectively when stimulated with lipopolysaccharide. The functional domain of the HCV protein essential for immunosuppression was determined using a series of ${NH_2}-and$ C-terminal deletion mutants of HCV core protein. We found that amino acid residues residing between the 21 st and the 40th residues from the ${NH_2}-terminus$ of HCV core protein are required for immunosuppression. These findings suggest that HCV core protein suppresses the elicitation of protective Th1 responses by the inhibition of IL-12 production by DCs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.1037-1040
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• 2015

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of liver, caused by a small enveloped, positive-single stranded RNA virus, called the hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV belongs to the Flaviviridae family and has 6 genotypes and more than 100 subtypes. It is estimated that 185 million people are infected with HCV worldwide and 5% of these are in Pakistan. The study was designed to evaluate different genotypes of HCV circulating in District Mardan and to know about the behavior of these genotypes to different anti-viral regimes. In this study 3,800 patients were exposed to interferon alfa-2a plus Ribavirin treatment for 6-months and subjected to real-time PCR to check the viral response. Among these 3,677 (97%) patients showed no detectable HCV RNA while 123 (3%) patients (non-responders) remained positive for HCV RNA. Genotypes of their analyzed showed that most of them belonged to the 3a genotype. Non-responders (123) and relapsed (5) patients were subjected to PEG-interferon and Ribavirin therapy for next 6 months, which resulted into elimination of HCV RNA from 110 patients. The genotypes of the persisting resistant samples to anti-viral treatment were 3b, 2a, 1a and 1b. Furthermore, viral RNA from 6 patients remained un-typed while 4 patients showed mixed infections. HCV was found more resistant to antiviral therapy in females as compared to mals. The age group 36-45 in both females and males was found most affected by infection. In general 3a is the most prevalent genotype circulating in district Mardan and the best anti-viral therapy is PEG-interferon plus Ribavirin but it is common practice that due to the high cost patients receive interferon alfa-2a plus Ribavirin with consequent resistance in 3% patients given this treatment regime.