; Applied Molecular Virology, Institut Pasteur Korea, Seongnam-si, South Korea g Low oxygen tension exerts a significant effect on the replication of several DNA and RNA viruses in cultured cells. In vitro propagation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has thus far been studied under atmospheric oxygen levels despite the fact that the liver tissue microenvironment is hypoxic. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of HCV production in actively dividing or differentiating human hepatoma cells cultured under low or atmospheric oxygen tensions. By using both HCV replicons and infectionbased assays, low oxygen was found to enhance HCV RNA replication whereas virus entry and RNA translation were not affected. Hypoxia signaling pathway-focused DNA microarray and real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses revealed an upregulation of genes related to hypoxic stress, glycolytic metabolism, cell growth, and proliferation when cells were kept under low (3% [vol/vol]) oxygen tension, likely reflecting cell adaptation to anaerobic conditions. Interestingly, hypoxia-mediated enhancement of HCV replication correlated directly with the increase in anaerobic glycolysis and creatine kinase B (CKB) activity that leads to elevated ATP production. Surprisingly, activation of hypoxia-inducible factor alpha (HIF-␣) was not involved in the elevation of HCV replication. Instead, a number of oncogenes known to be associated with glycolysis were upregulated and evidence that these oncogenes contribute to hypoxia-mediated enhancement of HCV replication was obtained. Finally, in liver biopsy specimens of HCV-infected patients, the levels of hypoxia and anaerobic metabolism markers correlated with HCV RNA levels. These results provide new insights into the impact of oxygen tension on the intricate HCVhost cell interaction. H epatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes a wide range of clinical manifestations, from a healthy carrier state to acute and chronic hepatitis that can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Nearly 3% of the world's population is chronically infected with HCV (1, 2), and current therapeutic approaches are not broadly effective (3).HCV is a positive-strand RNA virus with a 9.6-kb genome that is flanked at both termini by conserved, nontranslated regions (NTRs), required for RNA translation and replication. The 5= NTR comprises an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) that directs the expression of a polyprotein precursor (4, 5). The polyprotein is cleaved into structural (core, E1, E2) and nonstructural (p7, NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A, NS5B) proteins that, in association with cellular factors, form a membrane-associated replicase complex. This copies the viral positive-strand RNA into a negative-strand intermediate that serves as the template for the synthesis of progeny genomes. The alternative reading frame (ARFP) or coreϩ1 and minicore proteins, with as-yet-unknown functions, appear to be synthesized from the core region by alternative translation mechanisms (6, 7).Studies of the...

The present study investigated the response of the hypothyroid heart to ischaemia-reperfusion. Hypothyroidism was induced in Wistar rats by oral administration of propylthiouracil (0·05%) for 3 weeks (HYPO rats), while normal animals (NORM) served as controls. Isolated hearts from NORM and HYPO animals were perfused in Langendorff mode and subjected to zero-flow global ischaemia followed by reperfusion (I/R). Post-ischaemic recovery of left ventricular developed pressure was expressed as % of the initial value (LVDP%). Basal expression of protein kinase C (PKC ) and PKC and phosphorylation of p46 and p54 c-jun NH 2 -terminal kinases (JNKs) in response to I/R were assessed by Western blotting. LVDP% was found to be significantly higher in HYPO hearts than in NORM. At baseline, PKC expression was 1·4-fold more in HYPO than in NORM hearts, P,0·05, while PKC was not changed. Furthermore, basal phospho-p54 and -p46 JNK levels were 2·2-and 2·6-fold more in HYPO than in NORM hearts, P,0·05. In response to I/R, in NORM hearts, phospho-p54 and -p46 JNK levels were 5·5-and 6·0-fold more as compared with the baseline values, P,0·05, while they were not significantly altered in HYPO hearts. HYPO hearts seem to display a phenotype of cardioprotection against ischaemia-reperfusion and this is associated with basal PKC overexpression and attenuated JNK activation after I/R.

No abstract

No abstract

We identified and experimentally characterized novel hepatoma-specific promoters, which were valuable for cancer-specific gene therapy, using HSV-1 vectors.