Hepatitis B core antigen modulates exosomal miR-135a to target vesicle-associated membrane protein 2 promoting chemoresistance in hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 1 Hepatitis B virus upregulated the expression levels of miR-135a-5p in exosomes. A: Transmission electron microscopy image of exosomes; B: Western blotting indicated proteins in exosomes; C: Analysis of particle size distribution of exosomes; D and E: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay examined the expression of miR-135a-5p in exosomes derived from cancer cells and in HCC cell lines; F: Overexpression of Hepatitis B core antigen (HBc) in HepG2 cells was detected by qPCR; G and H: The qRCP assay identified the level of miR-135a-5p in HepG2 cells overexpressed HBc and exosomes isolated from HepG2 cells after transfected with pcDNA3.1-HBc plasmids; I: Detection of miR-135a-5p in adjacent and tumor tissues from 18 patients; J: Expression of miR-135a-5p obtained from TCGA in HCC. ^aP < 0.05; ^cP < 0.001. HBc: Hepatitis B core antigen.