MiR-122 in hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus dualinfection

• Published in: 世界肝病学杂志：英文版（电子版） 2015 (3), p.498-506
• Main Author: Kyoungsub Song Chang Han Srikanta Dash Luis A Balart Tong Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: dual; Hepatitis; infection; MiR-122; virus; virus/hepatitis
• ISSN: 1948-5182; 1948-5182

Hepatitis B virus （HBV） and hepatitis C virus （HCV）infections are the most common causes of chronicliver diseases and hepatocelluar carcinomas. Overthe past few years, the liver-enriched microRNA-122（miR-122） has been shown to differentially regulateviral replication of HBV and HCV. It is notable that thelevel of miR-122 is positively and negatively regulatedby HCV and HBV, respectively. Consistent with the welldocumentedphenomenon that miR-122 promotes HCVaccumulation, inhibition of miR-122 has been shown asan effective therapy for the treatment of HCV infectionin both chimpanzees and humans. On the other hand,miR-122 is also known to block HBV replication, andHBV has recently been shown to inhibit miR-122expression; such a reciprocal inhibition betweenmiR-122 and HBV suggests an intriguing possibilitythat miR-122 replacement may represent a potentialtherapy for treatment of HBV infection. As HBV andHCV have shared transmission routes, dual infection isnot an uncommon scenario, which is associated withmore advanced liver disease than either HBV or HCVmono-infection. Thus, there is a clear need to furtherunderstand the interaction between HBV and HCVand to delineate the role of miR-122 in HBV/HCV dualinfection in order to devise effective therapy. This reviewsummarizes the current understanding of HBV/HCVdual infection, focusing on the pathobiological role andtherapeutic potential of miR-122.