TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF CELLULAR AND VIRAL PROMOTERS BY THE HEPATITIS-C VIRUS CORE PROTEIN

The genomic region encoding the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein w as cloned into a mammalian expression vector to study its role on the transcriptional regulation of cellular proto-oncogene and viral promot ers. Using a transient transfection assay in human hepatocellular carc inoma (HepG2) cells, we demonstrate that the HCV core protein activate s the human c-myc, Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat (LTR), and simian virus 40 (SV40) early promoters; and suppresses the c-fos promo ter and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) LTR activity. The transcriptional regulation of cellular proto-oncogenes by the HCV core protein suggests possible involvement of the core protein in the dere gulation of normal hepatocyte growth and hepatocarcinogenesis.