Journal
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY
Volume 372, Issue 1-2, Pages 161-168Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11010-012-1457-x
Keywords
Autophagy; HBx; HepG-2; PI3K-Akt-mTOR; HCC
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is the dominant global cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially hepatitis B virus-X (HBx) plays a major role in this process. HBx protein promotes cell cycle progression, inactivates negative growth regulators, and binds to and inhibits the expression of p53 tumor suppressor gene and other tumor suppressor genes and senescence-related factors. However, the relationship between HBx and autophagy during the HCC development is poorly known. Previous studies found that autophagy functions as a survival mechanism in liver cancer cells. We suggest that autophagy plays a possible role in the pathogenesis of HBx-induced HCC. The present study showed that HBx transfection brought about an increase in the formation of autophagosomes and autolysosomes. Microtubule-associated protein light chain 3, Beclin 1, and lysosome-associated membrane protein 2a were up-regulated after HBx transfection. HBx-induced increase in the autophagic level was increased by mTOR inhibitor rapamycin and was blocked by treatment with the PI3K-Akt inhibitor LY294002. The same results can also be found in HepG2.2.15 cells. These results suggest that HBx activates the autophagic lysosome pathway in HepG-2 cells through the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available