PLX241838

GSE84346: Transcriptional response to hepatitis C virus infection and interferon alpha treatment in the human liver

• Organsim human
• Type RNASEQ
• Target gene
• Project ARCHS4

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is widely used to investigate host-virus interactions and cellular responses to infection have been extensively studied in vitro. In human liver, interferon (IFN) stimulated gene expression can mask direct transcriptional responses to virus infection. To better characterize the direct effects of HCV infection in vivo, we analyze the transcriptomes of HCV-infected patients lacking an activated endogenous IFN system. We show that the expression changes observed in these patients predominantly reflect immune cell infiltrates rather than changes in cell-intrinsic metabolic pathways. We also investigate the transcriptomes of patients with endogenous IFN activation, which paradoxically cannot eradicate viral infection. We find that most IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) are induced by both the endogenous IFN system and by recombinant IFN therapy, but with significantly higher induction levels in the latter. We conclude that the innate host immune response in chronic hepatitis C is too weak to clear the virus. SOURCE: Anamaria Necsulea (anamaria.necsulea@univ-lyon1.fr) - CNRS, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1