ABSTRACT
Background: The ability of tumour suppressor protein p53 [P53] to regulate cell cycle processes can be modulated by hepatitis B virus [HBV]. While preliminary evidences indicates the involvement of protein-x of HBV [HBx] in altering p53 DNA binding, no further data have been accumulated for the significance of serum p53 in chronic hepatitis B virus infected patients
Methods: 72 non-cirrhotic and 19 cirrhotic patients infected by HBV were enrolled for the analysis in this study. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA] was performed to study the concentrations of serum p53 protein. The tertiary structures of HBx and P53 were docked by Z-dock and Hex servers for in-silico protein-protein interaction analysis
Results: There was a significant association between the serum p53 and cirrhosis [OR=1.81 95% CI: 1.017-3.2, P=0.044]. Cirrhotic patients had higher level of serum p53 compare with chronic infection of HBV [1.98 +/- 1.22 vs. 1.29 +/- 0.72 U/ml, P=0.05]. No evidence of correlation was seen between the different variables such as age, gender, log viral load, serum alkaline phosphatase [ALP] and alanine aminotransferase [ALT] with serum p53. Tertiary model shows that the amino acid residues from Arg110 to Lys132 of the N-terminal of P53 which is critical for ubiquitination, are bonded to a region in N- terminal of HBx amino acid residues from Arg19 to Ser33
Conclusion: There is an increase in serum p53 in HBV-related cirrhosis patients. In this case, HBx might be responsible for such higher concentration of p53 through HBx-p53 protein-protein interaction, as is shown by molecular modeling approach