| Title | Hepatitis B virus (HBV) codon adapts well to the gene expression profile of liver cancer: an evolutionary explanation for HBV’s oncogenic role |
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| Author | Chunpeng Yu1, Jian Li1, Qun Li1, Shuai Chang1, Yufeng Cao2, Hui Jiang2, Lingling Xie1, Gang Fan3, and Song Wang1* |
| Address | 1Department of Interventional Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266005, P. R. China, 2Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Qingdao Hiser Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266005, P. R. China, 3Department of Interventional Radiology, Jimo District Qingdao Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qingdao, Shandong 266005, P. R. China |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 60(11),1106-1112, 2022, |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12275-022-2371-x |
| Key Words | hepatitis viruses, evolutionary arms race, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU), codon adaptation index (CAI) |
| Abstract | Due to the evolutionary arms race between hosts and viruses, viruses must adapt to host translation systems to rapidly synthesize viral proteins. Highly expressed genes in hosts have a codon bias related to tRNA abundance, the primary RNA translation rate determinant. We calculated the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) of three hepatitis viruses (HAV, HBV, and HCV), SARS-CoV-2, 30 human tissues, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). After comparing RSCU between viruses and human tissues, we calculated the codon adaptation index (CAI) of viral and human genes. HBV and HCV showed the highest correlations with HCC and the normal liver, while SARS-CoV-2 had the strongest association with lungs. In addition, based on HCC RSCU, the CAI of HBV and HCV genes was the highest. HBV and HCV preferentially adapt to the tRNA pool in HCC, facilitating viral RNA translation. After an initial trigger, rapid HBV/HCV translation and replication may change normal liver cells into HCC cells. Our findings reveal a novel perspective on virus-mediated oncogenesis. |