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Hepatitis B virus is a retrovirus in disguise
Author(s) -
Zeldis Jerome B.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.488
H-Index - 361
eISSN - 1527-3350
pISSN - 0270-9139
DOI - 10.1002/hep.1840060437
Subject(s) - virology , retrovirus , reverse transcriptase , hepatitis b virus , hepatocellular carcinoma , virus , biology , hepatitis b virus dna polymerase , hepatitis c virus , rna , gene , cancer research , genetics
Nucleocapsid‐pol fusion proteins have been detected by serological screening hepatocellular carcinoma tissues that contain hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA. The existence of these fusion proteins suggests that HBV may synthesize its reverse transcriptase in a fashion analogous to the way that retroviruses synthesize and process a precursor. The accumulation of HBV reverse transcriptase intermediates in tumorous tissues and not in other tissues may be related to the absence of viral core particles and possibly contributes to tumor development.