Detection of hepatitis B virus DNA integration in hepatocellular carcinoma using hepatitis B virus-Alu-polymerase chain reaction / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect the integration of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in HBVrelated human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). Methods Extracted DNA from the liver tissue samples and amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with specially designed U-base primers. According to the known genes and human Alu repeat sequences (Alu repeat) , primers were designed respectively. Integrated clones combined target HBV DNA and the adjacent cell gene sequences were established by PCR and products were sequenced by biotechnology companies.Accurate locations of HBV genes integrated in the human genomes were analyzed by national center for biotechnology information (NCBI) basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) and Map Viewer search. Results In 24 HBsAg positive HCC samples, 15 cases showed the integrations of HBV fragment. And the other 8 samples didn't show any evidence of integration. Among 14 samples with integration, forward insertions of HBV DNA into the host chromosomal DNA were found in 10 samples and reverse insertions were found in 8 samples while both forward and reverse insertions were found in 5 samples. Analysis from viral-cellular junctions suggested that the integrations were all happened with truncated viral DNA and could be in any locus of X gene. Conclusion HBV DNA integration is not distributed evenly throughout the host genome.