Scientists unravel mechanism that causes liver cancer

 Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have unraveled the mechanism that causes liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC), one of the most common solid tumors worldwide. Essentially, the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) integrates its own DNA into human genes: Their analyses revealed that the incidences of HBV integrations were high – 76 of the 88 patients had HBV integration. Specifically, they discovered that the HBV will integrate into genes CCNE1, SENP5 and ROCK1, causing an increase in the expression levels in these genes, and subsequently enhancing the tumor growth. This discovery is in addition to the previously reported integration into the TERT and MLL4 genes.