Mirella Fraquelli, Cristina Rigamonti – 27 June 2007

Yangchao Chen, Marie C. Lin, Hong Yao, Hua Wang, Ai‐Qun Zhang, Jun Yu, Chee‐kin Hui, George K. Lau, Ming‐liang He, Joseph Sung, Hsiang‐fu Kung – 27 June 2007 – Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been shown to be overexpressed in hepatocellular (HCC). We investigated the potential role of EZH2 in HCC tumorigenesis and examined the usefulness of RNA interference (RNAi) targeting EZH2 as a form of HCC treatment. Lentivirus‐mediated RNAi was employed to knock‐down EZH2 expression in human hepatoma cells to study the function of EZH2 in tumorigenesis and evaluate the treatment efficacy.

Koichi Matsuzaki, Miki Murata, Katsunori Yoshida, Go Sekimoto, Yoshiko Uemura, Noriko Sakaida, Masaki Kaibori, Yasuo Kamiyama, Mikio Nishizawa, Junichi Fujisawa, Kazuichi Okazaki, Toshihito Seki – 27 June 2007 – Many patients with chronic hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection develop liver fibrosis with high risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the mechanism underling this process is unclear.

Rushang D. Patel, Brett D. Hollingshead, Curtis J. Omiecinski, Gary H. Perdew – 27 June 2007 – The aryl‐hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a basic helix‐loop‐helix/Per‐Arnt‐Sim transcription factor that can be activated by exogenous as well as endogenous ligands. AhR is traditionally associated with xenobiotic metabolism. In an attempt to identify novel target genes, C57BL/6J mice were treated with β‐naphthoflavone (BNF), a known AhR ligand, and genome‐wide expression analysis studies were performed using high‐density microarrays.

Ingrid Herr, Peter Schemmer, Markus W. Büchler – 27 June 2007 – Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks among the 10 most common cancers worldwide. The fact that HCC is resistant to conventional chemotherapy and is rarely amenable to radiotherapy leaves this disease with no effective therapeutic options and a very poor prognosis. Therefore, the development of more effective therapeutic tools and strategies is much needed.

Brennan M. R. Spiegel, Roger Bolus, Steven Han, Myron Tong, Eric Esrailian, Jennifer Talley, Tram Tran, Jason Smith, Hetal A. Karsan, Francisco Durazo, Bruce Bacon, Paul Martin, Zobair Younossi, Siew Hwa‐Ong, Fasiha Kanwal – 27 June 2007 – Despite the increasing realization that health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome in chronic HBV infection, there are no validated, disease‐targeted instruments currently available.

Philippe Halfon, Guillaume Penaranda, Christophe Renou, Marc Bourliere – 27 June 2007

Michael Trauner – 27 June 2007

Michael R. Beard, Fiona J. Warner – 27 June 2007

Harel Dahari, Ruy M. Ribeiro, Alan S. Perelson – 27 June 2007 – When patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) are placed on antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon (IFN)‐α or IFN‐α plus ribavirin (RBV), HCV RNA generally declines in a biphasic manner. However, a triphasic decline has been reported in a subset of patients. A triphasic decline consists of a first phase (1‐2 days) with rapid virus load decline, followed by a “shoulder phase” (4‐28 days) in which virus load decays slowly or remains constant, and a third phase of renewed viral decay.