The differences in gene expression profile induced by genotype 1b hepatitis C virus core isolated from liver tumor and adjacent non-tumoral tissue

Background: Core protein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has an important role in HCV self-replication, pathogenesis and carcinogenesis. Objectives: To identify the effect of core proteins from different quasispecies of HCV genotype 1b expressed in a HepG2 cell line on human gene expression profiles. Materials and Methods: Core protein eukrocytic expression plasmids (pEGFP-N1) containing different quasispecie core protein genes of genotypes 1b HCV derived from of HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumoral tissue (T) and non-tumoral tissue (NT) were constructed and then transfected to HepG2 cell line. The gene expression spectrum in the cell expression core proteins from T and NT were compared with those in the control by Affymetrix human genome HG-U 133 plus 2.0 microarray. Results: Different gene expression profiles were acquired between HepG2 expressing core proteins derived from T and NT tissues. Both core proteins caused the modulation of several genes that are up/down-regulated as compared to control, including genes involved in oncogenesis, signal transduction, cell apoptosis, and cell growth cycle regulation. Surprisingly, only one gene—CSNK1A1—was up-regulated by both T and NT core variants. Conclusions: Core proteins isolated from tumoral or non-tumoral nodules mediate expression of different cellular genes suggesting that variants isolated from different quasispecies may have different biological effects.