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Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics, Vol. 7, No. 2, April-June, 2011, pp. 226-227 Brief Communication Renal cell carcinoma and hepatitis C virus infection: Is there any cause-outcome relationship? Viroj Wiwanitkit Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok, Thailand Code Number: cr11057 PMID: 21768723 Abstract Background: Hepatitis C virus is a common virus affecting human health. High rates of hepatitis C virus infection can be seen in many developing countries. It is accepted that hepatitis C virus is an oncogenic virus that can lead to liver cancer. Some recent researches also mentioned the possibility of hepatitis C virus as a risk for renal cell carcinoma. Keywords: Hepatitis C, renal cancer, relationship Introduction Renal cell carcinoma is a specific malignancy of the kidney. [1] It is considered to be a deadly disease. The exact causes of renal cell carcinoma have not yet been clarified. However, there are several reports on the possible etiologies of renal cell carcinoma. Of the several possible factors, viral infections have also been mentioned as risk factors for carcinogenesis of kidney. [2] Indeed, viral infection is confirmed for its role in the induction of cancer. [3] The case of hepatitis induced hepatoma is the best example. There are some reports mentioning viral infection as a risk factor for renal cell carcinoma. [4] Hepatitis virus induced renal cell carcinoma is the focus of the present study. Recently, Gordon et al. reported, "Chronic HCV infection confers a risk for the development of renal cell carcinoma". [5] In this work, the author tries to study the cause and outcome relationship between hepatitis C virus infection and renal cell carcinoma using the standard bioinformatics technique. Materials and Methods This work was a descriptive bioinformatics study. The concept of relationship network, which states that if two disorders have a relationship, there must be at least one connecting biological process via a connecting protein, was applied. The aim of this work was to find the possible relationship network between hepatitis C virus and renal cell carcinoma. Similar protocols for finding such relationship can be seen in a previously published paper by Wiwanitkit. [6] First, the author searched for the hepatitis C virus related protein and renal cell carcinoma related protein via public database (PubMed). Further detection of the common proteins among hepatitis C virus related protein and renal cell carcinoma related protein group was done. If there was any detected common protein, further tracing of the corresponding biological process via ontology study was done and finalized network of relationship was constructed. Results Based on this study, the primary search revealed 174,236 hepatitis C virus related proteins and 504 renal cell carcinoma related proteins. Further identification of all proteins showed that there is no common protein between hepatitis C virus related protein and renal cell carcinoma related protein groups. According to this study, there is only one common protein, NY-REN-54. The four ontological biological processes of this protein that have been identified include: a) ubiquitin-protein ligase activity, b) protein binding, c) ligase activity and d) acid-amino acid ligase activity. The finalized possible interrelationship network is presented in [Figure - 1]. Discussion The oncogenesis process of renal cell carcinoma is still a myth in nephrology. There are several hypotheses for this process. An important idea is the induction of renal carcinoma as a result of chronic viral infection. [4] Gordon et al. noted, "Clinicians should consider newly identified renal lesions in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection with a heightened suspicion for neoplasm, and newly diagnosed cases of renal cell carcinoma may require more careful surveillance for the presence of hepatitis C virus infection". [5] Hence, it is wise to study the interrelationship between hepatitis C virus and renal cell carcinoma. In this work, the author uses the electronic database searching technique to tracking back thorough identified biological processes of common protein being expressed in the biological processes detected in both hepatitis C virus infection and renal cell carcinoma. Ubiquitin-protein ligase seems to be an important connecting part. Indeed, it is known that hepatitis C virus primarily co-localizes with this molecule before internalization into the infected cell and further disturbs the autophagic response, an important mechanism for regulation of abnormal cell. [7],[8] Of interest, this disturbance is also reported to be an important problem in renal cell condition normalization. [9] Hence, the proposed possible interrelationship might be a possible explanation for hepatitis C induced oncogenesis of renal cells. Conclusion Based on this work, it can be concluded that there might be a cause-outcome relationship between hepatitis C virus infection and renal cell carcinoma via NY-REN-54. The process might be due to the disturbance of autophagic response due to ubiquitin-protein ligase-related mechanism. References
Copyright 2011 - Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics The following images related to this document are available:Photo images[cr11057f1.jpg] |
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