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World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2015; 7(3): 498-506
Published online Mar 27, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i3.498
MiR-122 in hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus dual infection
Kyoungsub Song, Chang Han, Srikanta Dash, Luis A Balart, Tong Wu
Kyoungsub Song, Chang Han, Srikanta Dash, Tong Wu, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, United States
Luis A Balart, Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, United States
Author contributions: Wu T designed the review objective and the review structure; Song K and Wu T collected the reference and wrote the manuscript; Han C, Dash S and Balart LA read through the paper and contributed edition of the manuscript.
Supported by Grants from NIDDK and NCI.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tong Wu, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue, SL-79, New Orleans, LA 70112, United States. twu@tulane.edu
Telephone: +1-504-9885210 Fax: +1-504-9887862
Received: July 16, 2014
Peer-review started: July 16, 2014
First decision: August 28, 2014
Revised: September 6, 2014
Accepted: December 16, 2014
Article in press: December 16, 2014
Published online: March 27, 2015
Processing time: 258 Days and 13 Hours
Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are the most common causes of chronic liver diseases and hepatocelluar carcinomas. Over the past few years, the liver-enriched microRNA-122 (miR-122) has been shown to differentially regulate viral replication of HBV and HCV. It is notable that the level of miR-122 is positively and negatively regulated by HCV and HBV, respectively. Consistent with the well-documented phenomenon that miR-122 promotes HCV accumulation, inhibition of miR-122 has been shown as an effective therapy for the treatment of HCV infection in both chimpanzees and humans. On the other hand, miR-122 is also known to block HBV replication, and HBV has recently been shown to inhibit miR-122 expression; such a reciprocal inhibition between miR-122 and HBV suggests an intriguing possibility that miR-122 replacement may represent a potential therapy for treatment of HBV infection. As HBV and HCV have shared transmission routes, dual infection is not an uncommon scenario, which is associated with more advanced liver disease than either HBV or HCV mono-infection. Thus, there is a clear need to further understand the interaction between HBV and HCV and to delineate the role of miR-122 in HBV/HCV dual infection in order to devise effective therapy. This review summarizes the current understanding of HBV/HCV dual infection, focusing on the pathobiological role and therapeutic potential of miR-122.

Keywords: MiR-122; Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis C virus; Hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus dual infection

Core tip: This paper summarizes direct and indirect interactions between hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), and the pathobiological role and therapeutic potential of liver specific miR-122 in HBV/HCV dual infection.