Jin‐Hua Sun, Donald R. O'Boyle II, Yan Zhang, Chunfu Wang, Peter Nower, Lourdes Valera, Susan Roberts, Richard E. Nettles, Robert A. Fridell, Min Gao – 11 January 2012 – The influence of naturally occurring polymorphisms on the potency of the HCV nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) replication complex inhibitor, BMS‐790052, was investigated by evaluating hybrid replicons in which the entire NS5A coding region of genotype (GT) la and 1b laboratory (lab) strains (H77c and Con1) were replaced with the corresponding regions of specimens collected from 10 GT‐1a‐ and 6 GT‐1b‐infected subjects.

YuXiang Fang, Jing‐Lun Xue, Qi Shen, Jinzhong Chen, Ling Tian – 11 January 2012 – MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to be involved in carcinogenesis and tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, microRNA‐7 (miR‐7) has been proven to play a substantial role in glioblastoma and breast cancer, but its functions in the context of HCC remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that miR‐7 inhibits HCC cell growth and metastasis invitro and in vivo. We first screened and identified a novel miR‐7 target, phosphoinositide 3‐kinase catalytic subunit delta (PIK3CD).

Josh Levitsky, James M. Mathew, Michael Abecassis, Anat Tambur, Joseph Leventhal, Dhivya Chandrasekaran, Nancy Herrera, Patrice Al‐Saden, Lorenzo Gallon, Anmaar Abdul‐Nabi, Guang‐Yu Yang, Sunil M. Kurian, Daniel R. Salomon, Joshua Miller – 11 January 2012 – Immunosuppression (IS) withdrawal from calcineurin inhibitors is only possible in ∼20% of liver transplant recipients. However, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors (e.g., sirolimus; SRL) appear to be more immunoregulatory and might promote a tolerant state for withdrawal.

Florence Grise, Sandra Sena, Aurélien Bidaud‐Meynard, Jessica Baud, Jean‐Baptiste Hiriart, Kassem Makki, Nathalie Dugot‐Senant, Cathy Staedel, Paulette Bioulac‐Sage, Jessica Zucman‐Rossi, Jean Rosenbaum, Violaine Moreau – 11 January 2012 – We performed a review of public microarray data that revealed a significant down‐regulation of Rnd3 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as compared to nontumor liver. Rnd3/RhoE is an atypical RhoGTPase family member because it is always under its active GTP‐bound conformation and not sensitive to classical regulators.

Piero Amodio, Sara Montagnese, Carlo Merkel – 11 January 2012

Nicolas Dupin, Vincent Mallet, Agnès Carlotti, Anaïs Vallet‐Pichard, Stanislas Pol – 11 January 2012

Nassim Kamar, Florence Legrand‐Abravanel, Harry R. Dalton, Jacques Izopet – 11 January 2012

Jing Shen, Shuang Wang, Yu‐Jing Zhang, Maya Kappil, Hui‐Chen Wu, Muhammad G. Kibriya, Qiao Wang, Farzana Jasmine, Habib Ahsan, Po‐Huang Lee, Ming‐Whei Yu, Chien‐Jen Chen, Regina M. Santella – 11 January 2012 – Alterations in DNA methylation frequently occur in hepatocellular cancer (HCC). We have previously demonstrated that hypermethylation in candidate genes can be detected in plasma DNA before HCC diagnosis.

Rachel Tanos, Rushang D. Patel, Iain A. Murray, Philip B. Smith, Andrew D. Patterson, Gary H. Perdew – 11 January 2012 – The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a ligand‐activated transcription factor. Activation of AhR mediates the expression of target genes (e.g., CYP1A1) by binding to dioxin response element (DRE) sequences in their promoter region.

Lin Liu, Brian E. Fisher, David L. Thomas, Andrea L. Cox, Stuart C. Ray – 11 January 2012 – The aim of this study is to determine whether early viral dynamics and evolution predict outcome of primary acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV‐ and human immunodeficiency virus–negative injection drug users were enrolled prospectively and followed monthly to identify acute HCV infection using RNA detection. Subjects with more than 1 month between HCV‐RNA‐negative and ‐positive visits were excluded to ensure stringent acute infection.