HBx蛋白生物学作用的研究进展

Advances in understanding the biological roles of HBx

乙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis B virus,HBV)感染是肝脏疾病和肿瘤的主要病因之一.目前全世界HBV感染的人数超过3亿5千万人,而我国乙型肝炎表面抗原阳性患者人数在1.2亿以上.HBV是嗜肝DNA病毒家族的溶原性病毒,基因组呈松弛环状双链结构,含有4个开放读码框架(open reading frame,ORF),其中X区所编码的产物(hepatitis B virus X protein,HBx)蛋白是一种多功能的调节蛋白,具有广泛的反式激活功能,在胞内信号转导、病毒复制转录、细胞周期进程、细胞增殖与凋亡、蛋白降解以及肝细胞的遗传稳定性等方面有确切作用.鉴于HBx蛋白在慢性肝脏疾病发生发展中发挥的重要作用,HBx已逐渐成为近年来研究的焦点,本文就HBx蛋白生物学作用的最新研究进展作一综述.

Hepatitis B virus（HBV） is the leading cause of liver cancer.Globally,there are over 350 million individuals chronically infected with HBV,and approximately 25%of these individuals will de-velop hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）.HBV is the prototype virus of the hepadnavirus family.The genome of HBV is circular and contains four open reading frames（ORFs）.The HBx protein encoded by the X region of HBV is a multifunc-tional regulatory protein that possesses a wide transactivation activity and plays critical roles in regulating intracellular signal transduction,viral replication and transcription,cell proliferation and apoptosis,protein degradation,and hered-ity stability of hepatocytes.Due to its important roles in the development of chronic liver diseas-es,the research on the HBx protein has become a hot topic in recent years.In this paper,we will summarize the latest advances in understanding the biological roles of the HBx protein.