The mechanism of HBx protein to promote the initiation and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma

摘要

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide and the third most common cause of death from cancer, after lung and stomach cancer. Hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection is closely related to HCC and is a major cause of HCC. HBV is a lysogenic virus of the hepadnavirus family. Its genome presents a slack, ring-like, double-chain structure, containing four open reading frames. The X region encodes the product HBV X protein(HBx), which is a multifunctional regulatory protein that plays an important role in intracellular signal transduction, viral genome replication and transcription, cell proliferation and apoptosis, cell cycle progression, protein degradation, and genetic stability of hepatocytes. This article summarizes the recent research on the mechanism of promotion of initiation and progression of HCC by HBx protein.