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Hepatitis C virus infection in hepatocellular carcinoma. Detection of plus‐strand and minus‐strand viral RNA
Author(s) -
Takeda Shin,
Shibata Motohiro,
Morishima Tsuneo,
Harada Akio,
Nakao Akimasa,
Takagi Hiroshi,
Nagai Yoshiyuki
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19921101)70:9<2255::aid-cncr2820700907>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - hepatitis c virus , hepatocellular carcinoma , virology , rna , virus , carcinogenesis , polymerase chain reaction , primer (cosmetics) , medicine , reverse transcriptase , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , cancer , cancer research , gene , chemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
Background . Although serum antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti‐HCV) is found in many patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the actual roles of HCV in carcinogenesis are unknown. Methods . With reverse transcription followed by the polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), HCV RNA was examined in the sera and liver tissues of 16 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who did not have hepatitis B virus markers, 13 of whom had anti‐HCV. Results . In the 13 patients with anti‐HCV, the HCV genomic plus‐strand RNA was detected more frequently in noncancerous tissues (8 patients, 61.5%) and in sera (6 patients, 46.2%) than in cancerous tissues (3 patients, 23.1%). No viral RNA was found in either sera or tissues in the three patients without anti‐HCV. By using a sense primer for the RT in the RT‐PCR assay, amplification was attempted of a putative complementary minus‐strand RNA that is believed to reflect viral replication in the eight patients with the plus‐strand RNA. The minus‐strand RNA was found in the noncancerous tissues of six patients; it was not detected in the cancerous tissues. Conclusions . These results suggest that HCV can infect and replicate predominantly in noncancerous cells but rarely in tumor cells. Cancer 1992; 702255‐2259.