Identification of Genetic Changes Caused by the Hepatitis C Virus

In her new study, Prof. Meital Gal-Tanamy from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University, headed an international group of researchers who examined the causality between the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and primary liver cancer. Primary liver cancer is the fifth-most common cancer worldwide and the second-highest cause of cancer death in men. HCV is the most common risk factor for liver cancer in the Western world, and although the oncogenic effect of chronic HCV infections has been widely studied, the sequence of events that follow from viral infection to cancer remains a mystery. In the current study, by using advanced sequencing techniques, the researchers identified unique mutations as well as changes in gene expression as a result of epigenetic modifications caused by HCV. This study presents a link between the cancer-causing mutations and the increased predisposition to liver cancer in HCV-infected patients, revealing new mechanisms leading to liver cancer and cancer in general.

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