Project description:We applied small RNA Solexa sequencing technology to identify microRNA expression in human liver samples from surgically removed liver tissues including three normal liver tissues (distal normal liver tissue of liver hemangioma), an hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected liver, a severe chronic hepatitis B liver, two HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), an hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC, and an HCC without HBV or HCV infection. All samples were collected with the informed consent of the patients and the experiments were approved by the ethics committee of Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China. We investigated the miRNome in human normal liver and suggested some deregulated abundantly expressed microRNAs in HCC. center_name: National Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology & Institute of Immunology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China. Examination of miRNome in human liver samples from surgically removed liver tissues including three normal liver tissues (distal normal liver tissue of liver hemangioma), an hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected liver tissue, a severe chronic hepatitis B liver tissue, an HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissue and adjacent liver tissues of different regions,an HBV-related HCC tissue and adjacent liver tissue, an hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC tissue and adjacent liver tissue, and an HCC without HBV or HCV infection and adjacent liver tissue. All 15 human liver tissue samples.
Project description:Purpose: Chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection leads to liver fibrosis which is a major risk factor in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and an independent risk factor of recurrence after HCC tumor resection. HBV genome can be inserted into human genome, and chronic inflammation may trigger somatic mutations. Several studies characterized HBV integration sites in HCC patients with regard to frequently occurring hotspots. However, how HBV integration and other genomic changes contribute to the risk of tumor recurrence with regard to different degree of liver fibrosis is not clearly understood. In this study, we aim to find potential molecular mechanisms underlying tumor recurrence of HBV-associated HCC (HBV-HCC) with different degree of liver fibrosis. Methods: We performed RNA sequencing of 21 pairs of tumor and non-neoplastic liver tissues of HBV-HCC patients and performed comprehensive genomic analysis of our RNAseq data and public available sequencing data related to HBV-HCC. We developed a robust pipeline for sensitively identifying HBV integration sites based on sequencing data. Simulations with sequencing data showed that our method outperformed existing methods. We also compared SNPs of each sample with SNPs in cancer census database and inferred patient’s pathogenic SNP loads in tumor and non-neoplastic liver tissues. Conclusions: The HBV-integration and pathogenic SNP load patterns for HCC recurrence risk vary depending on liver fibrosis stage, suggesting potentially different tumorigenesis mechanisms for low and high liver fibrosis patients.
Project description:miRNA played an important role in the process of carcinogenesis in HBV related hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, we performed miRNA microarray to evaluate the miRNAs that expressed differentially between HCC tumor versus non-tumor liver tissues. RNA was extracted from snap fresh tissue collected from resected HCC tumor and adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. All HCC tumors were HBV-associated HCC.
Project description:We applied small RNA Solexa sequencing technology to identify microRNA expression in human liver samples from surgically removed liver tissues including three normal liver tissues (distal normal liver tissue of liver hemangioma), an hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected liver, a severe chronic hepatitis B liver, two HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), an hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC, and an HCC without HBV or HCV infection. All samples were collected with the informed consent of the patients and the experiments were approved by the ethics committee of Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China. We investigated the miRNome in human normal liver and suggested some deregulated abundantly expressed microRNAs in HCC. center_name: National Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology & Institute of Immunology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
Project description:Here we interrogate the potential of human liver organoids as a platform for modeling HBV infection and related tumorigenesis. We show that organoids derived from HBV-infected patients display an aberrant early cancer gene signature, which clusters with the HCC cohort on the TCGA LIHC dataset and away from healthy liver tissue.
Project description:Purpose: Aberrantly methylated DNA are hallmarks for many cancers, HCC included. Tumor shed its DNA into circulation stream, and serum DNA methylation analysis is a less-invasive and accessable way to judge the primary tumor status. The goals of this study are to compare DNA methylation profiling in serum cell-free DNA from different stages of HCC progression including healthy control, chronic HBV carrier, HBV-related liver Cirrhosis and HCC, to establish HCC development-related aberrnat DNA methylation patterns. Methods: MBD methylCap/seq was carried out to screen differentially methylated CpG islands in serum cell-free DNA on four different stage of HBV-related HCC development. MSP and multiplex-BSP validation was performed using independent serum DNA or tumor and adjacent tissues. Results: Using a MBD methylCap/seq platform, we produced 33- to 37- million raw reads per sample and mapped them, in about half of the raw reads, to human genome(build h19) in the serum cf DNA of healthy control, HBV carrier, HBV cirrhosis and HCC. The mapped reads formed 180k to 260k peaks per sample, with 160 k common peaks shared by four samples. After subtraction of the common peaks, there left 51k, 107k and 78 k DMRs representing hypermethylations, in HBV carrier, HBV cirrhosis and HCC, respectively. We define those DMRs as early, middle and late when these DMRS occurred and maintained in HBV carrier, HBV cirrhosis and HCC, which including 27k, 24k and 19k DMRs, corresponding to 1,416, 1,337, 1,006 genes. GO analysis of them revealed gene categories and pathways associated with tumorogenenisis related process Conclusions: Our study represents the first detailed analysis of serum cf-DNA methylation profiling in the progression of HBV related HCC development. The processed data analysis here offers a comprehensive evaluation of DNA methylation in serum cf DNA. We conclude that MBD methylCap/seq based methylation profiling would benefit epigenetic research in HCC.
Project description:We analyzed three clinical parameters with gene expression data from 122 liver tissues. Six healthy samples were used in validation. All hepatitis samples were HBV infected, which was validated by positive HBsAg or serum HBV-DNA. The samples with HCV infection or metabolic liver injury (e.g. fatty liver, chronic alcoholic hepatitis, etc.) were excluded. This dataset is part of the TransQST collection.
Project description:The presentation of virus-derived peptides by HLA class I molecules on the surface of an infected cell and the recognition of these HLA-peptide complexes by, and subsequent activation of, CD8+ cytotoxic T cells provides an important mechanism for immune protection against viruses. Recent advances in proteogenomics have allowed researchers to discover a growing number of unique HLA-restricted viral peptides, resulting in a rapidly expanding repertoire of targets for immunotherapeutics (i.e. bispecific antibodies, engineered T-cell receptors (TCRs), chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-Ts)) to infected tissues. However, genomic variability between viral strains, such as Hepatitis-B virus (HBV), in combination with differences in patient HLA alleles, make it difficult to develop therapeutics against these targets. To address this challenge, we developed a novel proteogenomics approach for generating patient-specific databases that enable the identification of viral peptides based on the viral transcriptomes sequenced from individual patient liver samples. We also utilized DNA sequencing of patient samples to identify HLA genotypes and assist in target selection. Liver samples from 48 HBV infected patients, primarily from Asia, were examined to reconstruct patient-specific HBV genomes, identify regions within the human chromosomes targeted by HBV integrations and obtain a comprehensive view of HBV peptide epitopes using our HLA class-I (HLA-I) immunopeptidomics discovery platform. Two previously reported HLA associated HBV-derived peptides, HLA-A02 binder FLLTRILTI (S194-202) from the large surface antigen and HLA-A11 binder STLPETTVVRR (C141-151) from the capsid protein were validated by our discovery platform, but both were detected at a very low frequencies. In addition, we identified and validated, using heavy peptide analogues, novel strain-specific HBV-HLA associated peptides, such as GSLPQEHIVQK (P606-616) and variants. Overall, our novel approach can guide the development of bispecific antibody, TCR-T, or CAR-T based therapeutics for the treatment of HBV-related HCC and inform vaccine development.
Project description:Global expression profiling of miRNAs in liver tissue of HBV infected HCC and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with no fibrosis was evaluated. A total of 40 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in HCC. Top 10 miRNAs are validated in more numbers of HCC tisuues by qRT PCR. Finally six miRNAs (miR-15a, miR-16, miR-21,miR-29b-3p, miR-126, miR-142-3p, miR-193a-5p) showed similar expression pattern in both microarray and qRT PCR Differential expression analysis of microRNAs in HBV infected HCC (n=4) compared to CHB patients with no fibrosis (n=8) as control.
Project description:Five matching sets of non-malignant liver tissues and HCCs from individuals chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) were examined. The HBV genomic sequences were determined using overlapping PCR amplicons covering the entire viral genome. Four pairs of tissues were infected with HBV of genotype C, while one pair - with genotype B. HBV replication markers were found in all tissues. In majority of HCC samples, the levels of pre-genomic/pre-core RNA (pgRNA) and covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) were lower than those of liver tissue counterparts. Regardless of the presence of HBV replication markers, (i) integrant-derived HBV RNAs (id-RNAs) were found using RT-PCR analysis in all tissues, and were considerably abundant or predominant in 6/10 tissue samples (2 livers and 4 HCCs); (ii) the RNAs that were polyadenylated using cryptic HBV polyadenylation signal and therefore could be produced by HBV replication or derived from integrated HBV DNA were found in 5/10 samples (3 livers and 2 HCCs), and were considerably abundant species in 3/10 tissues (2 livers and 1 HCC); and (iii) cccDNA-transcribed RNAs polyadenylated near position 1931 were not abundant in 7/10 tissues (2 livers and 5 HCCs), and were predominant only in two livers. Subsequent RNA sequencing analysis of selected liver/HCC samples also showed relative abundance of id-RNAs in most of examined tissues. Our findings suggesting that id-RNAs could represent a significant source of HBV envelope proteins, which is independent of viral replication, are discussed in the context of possible contribution of id-RNAs to the HBV life cycle.