Hepatitis C virus infection and gene expression of hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients

Gene expression profiling of hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC] is promising for refining the diagnosis and prognosis as well as identifying potential therapeutic targets. Our study aimed to study the gene expression in 40 HCC patients infected with hepatitis C virus [HCV] using RT-PCR technique on surgical liver sample. Gene expression changes in HCV-positive group were compared with gene expression in HCV-negative group. Four genes were included in this study, AFP gene, CD10 gene, HGF gene and GRB2 gene. The expression of the four genes were slightly higher in HCV positive group than in HCV negative group, however, the difference between the two groups was non-significant. HGF gene was expressed in only 20% of HCC patients and GRB2 gene was expressed in 95% of HCC patients. AFP gene and CD10 gene were expressed in all patients. AFP gene, CD10 gene and GRB2 gene play an important role as diagnostic markers of HCC

Vitamin E and A interrelations in beta-thalassemic children with hepatitis C virus infection

Both vitamin E and A were reported to have an immuno-modulatory effect on some viral infections. vitamin E supplementation showed this effect in the recovery from viral hepatitis B [HBV] and C [HCV] infections, while vitamin A delayed and decreased the degree of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis with chronic viral infections. Beta-thalassemic children are at risk for HCV infection from transfusion therapy and co-infection with Schistosoma mansoni [s. mansoni], which is common in Egypt, may augment hepatic injury in them. Accordingly, we conducted this work on 52 beta-thalassemic patients and 18 healthy controls to evaluate serum vitamin E and A [by HPLC method] interrelations with HCV and potential S mansoni co-infection. Vitamin E was markedly decreased in patients compared to controls. The only significant [p<0.01] variable in HCV-infected [by 3[rd] generation ELISA test] patients was elevated alanine aminotransferase. None of the variables was significantly associated with HCV-viremia [by RT-RCR test]. IgG and IgM against S. mansoni egg soluble antigens were done on 44 patients [by home-made ELISA test] and co-infection with HCV was present in 38.6% of them. This co-infection group had a decreased serum vitamin E [p<0.05] and a strong inverse correlation [p<0.01] with vitamin A, which were not present in other groups of patients. The findings of the present study support the suggestion of vitamin E supplementation to beta-thalassemic patients and future studies should focus on co-infected HCV/ S. mansoni group of patients for better understanding of molecular mechanism [s] of vitamin E effects on immune system cells