X基因——抗乙型肝炎病毒治疗的新靶点

X gene:a novel target for anti-hepatitis B virus infection

X基因是乙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis B virus,HBV)的四个基因之一.最近的研究表明,他不仅参与HBV感染宿主过程,还影响HBV病毒基因的复制和表达,直接或/和间接通过宿主的免疫反应或其他作用,导致HBV致病的系列病理过程,而且在HBV生命周期中具有非常重要的作用.降低或去除X基因转录,或者封闭X蛋白某些功能以及使X基因表达沉默均能显著抑制病毒复制水平.本文通过对X基因在HBV复制和基因表达中的作用以及针对X基因的干预对HBV复制和基因表达的影响的最新研究成果进行综述,提出X基因是乙肝抗病毒治疗的一个新靶点.

X gene is one of the four genes of hepatitis B virus （HBV）. HBV X （HBx） protein, which was coded by HBx gene, is a multifunctional regulator of cellular signal transduction and transcription pathways, and it is not only essential for the regulation of host immune reaction, participates all the HBV-related pathogenesis such as inflammation, carcinogenesis and other pathological process, but also play a critical role in HBV infection, replication, and gene expression. Downregulation, knocking-out, or functional blockage of X gene can obviously inhibit the replication of HBV. In this review, we attempted to describe the current advance on the role of X gene in HBV replication and gene expression, and suggested that HBx had been a promising target for the treatment of HBV infection.