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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 28, 2015; 21(36): 10299-10313
Published online Sep 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i36.10299
Chronic hepatitis C virus infection and lipoprotein metabolism
Yoshio Aizawa, Nobuyoshi Seki, Tomohisa Nagano, Hiroshi Abe
Yoshio Aizawa, Nobuyoshi Seki, Tomohisa Nagano, Hiroshi Abe, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University Katsushika Medical Center, Tokyo 125-8506, Japan
Author contributions: Aizawa Y, Seki N, Nagano T and Abe H equally contributed to this work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to be declared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yoshio Aizawa, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, The Jikei University Katsushika Medical Center, 6-41-2 Aoto, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo 125-8506, Japan. aichanyoshi@yahoo.co.jp
Telephone: +83-33-6032111 Fax: +83-33-8389944
Received: April 20, 2015
Peer-review started: April 21, 2015
First decision: May 18, 2015
Revised: July 11, 2015
Accepted: August 30, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: September 28, 2015
Processing time: 160 Days and 18.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and lipids interact closely at multiple stages in the HCV life cycle. HCV infection may have a profound influence on lipid metabolism, while lipids can regulate HCV replication. Infectious HCV forms lipo-viral particles that possess the features of lipoproteins. Examination of lipoprotein sub-fractions and apolipoproteins is inevitable for evaluating the nature of disturbed lipid metabolism. Among apolipoproteins, apolipoprotein E is a key molecule required for HCV entry, and is one of the possible therapeutic targets for interrupting HCV infection. Understanding the disturbed lipid metabolism may shed light on the pathophysiology of HCV infection and help develop novel therapeutics.