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Hepatitis C virus core protein does not inhibit apoptosis in human hepatoma cells
Author(s) -
Franz Ludwig Dumoulin,
A vsn dem Bussche,
J Söhne,
Tilman Sauerbruch,
Ulrich Spengler
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
european journal of clinical investigation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.164
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1365-2362
pISSN - 0014-2972
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2362.1999.00559.x
Subject(s) - apoptosis , virology , hepatitis b virus , biology , virus , viral transformation , hepatitis c virus , ns2 3 protease , interferon , cytokine , transfection , cell culture , microbiology and biotechnology , immunology , biochemistry , genetics
Background Viral persistence is a major problem after infection with the hepatitis C virus. Recently, it has been reported that hepatitis C virus core protein inhibits cis‐platin induced apoptosis in human cervical carcinoma cells and apoptosis induced by overexpression of c‐myc in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Materials and methods This study investigated whether different variants of hepatitis C virus core or E2 protein interfere with tumour necrosis factor α or Fas (CD95/ APO‐1) antibody‐induced programmed cell death in transiently transfected human hepatoma (HepG2) cells. Results While neither full length or C‐terminally truncated variants of hepatitis C virus core protein nor hepatitis C virus E2 protein inhibited tumour necrosis factor α‐ or Fas antibody‐induced apoptosis, a strong inhibition was observed with the cowpox virus cytokine response modifier A protein. Conclusions Thus, it is unlikely that hepatitis C virus core or E2 protein inhibit apoptosis mediated by apoptosis‐signalling pathways sensitive to cytokine response modifier A protein. Discrepancies to previous reports probably reflect specific effects of hepatitis C virus core protein on different apoptotic pathways and/ or cell lines.