Molecular mechanisms of viral hepatitis induced hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 3 Hepatitis C virus life cycle. Hepatitis C virus entry is facilitated by a variety of receptors and signaling pathways (described in[37]). Upon viral entry, the positive sense RNA genome is released into the cytoplasm from endosomal acidification. The viral RNA undergoes replication and translation at the rough endoplasmic reticulum to produce a single polyprotein chain at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane that is cleaved by viral and host proteases into 10 different viral proteins (structural and non-structural). The virus particles are assembled on lipid droplets and associate with very-low-density lipoproteins which mature at the Golgi apparatus and are released via the secretory pathway. HSPG: Heparin sulfate proteoglycan receptor; LD: Lipid droplets; VLDL: Very-low-density lipoproteins.