Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jan 8, 2017; 9(1): 18-29
Published online Jan 8, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i1.18
PI3K/SHIP2/PTEN pathway in cell polarity and hepatitis C virus pathogenesis
Aline Awad, Ama Gassama-Diagne
Aline Awad, Ama Gassama-Diagne, Inserm Unité 1193, Hôpital Paul Brousse, 94800 Villejuif, France
Aline Awad, Ama Gassama-Diagne, Univ Paris-Sud, UMR-S 1193, Univsité Paris-Saclay, 94800 Villejuif, France
Author contributions: Awad A and Gassama-Diagne A discussed the ideas; Awad A wrote the manuscript; Gassama-Diagne A edited the manuscript.
Supported by Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida et les hépatites (ANRS, France), Ligue contre le cancer, France.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
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: Ama Gassama-Diagne, MD, Inserm Unité 1193, Hôpital Paul Brousse, 12 Avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier, 94800 Villejuif, France. ama.gassama@inserm.fr
Telephone: +33-14-5596070 Fax: +33-14-5596090
Received: June 28, 2016
Peer-review started: June 30, 2016
First decision: August 10, 2016
Revised: September 10, 2016
Accepted: November 1, 2016
Article in press: November 2, 2016
Published online: January 8, 2017
Processing time: 191 Days and 9.2 Hours
Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects hepatocytes, polarized cells in the liver. Chronic HCV infection often leads to steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and it has been identified as the leading cause of liver transplantation worldwide. The HCV replication cycle is dependent on lipid metabolism and particularly an accumulation of lipid droplets in host cells. Phosphoinositides (PIs) are minor phospholipids enriched in different membranes and their levels are tightly regulated by specific PI kinases and phosphatases. PIs are implicated in a vast array of cellular responses that are central to morphogenesis, such as cytoskeletal changes, cytokinesis and the recruitment of downstream effectors to govern mechanisms involved in polarization and lumen formation. Important reviews of the literature identified phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) 4-kinases, and their lipid products PtdIns(4)P, as critical regulators of the HCV life cycle. SH2-containing inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase (SHIP2), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and their lipid products PtdIns(3,4)P2 and PtdIns(3,4,5)P3, respectively, play an important role in the cell membrane and are key to the establishment of apicobasal polarity and lumen formation. In this review, we will focus on these new functions of PI3K and SHIP2, and their deregulation by HCV, causing a disruption of apicobasal polarity, actin organization and extracellular matrix assembly. Finally we will highlight the involvement of this pathway in the event of insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease related to HCV infection.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus; Phosphoinositide 3-kinase; SH2-containing inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase; Epithelial cell polarity; Phosphoinositides

Core tip: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection leads to liver cirrhosis and cancer. HCV infection modulates the lipid metabolism. Phosphoinositides are minor phospholipids that are also modified by HCV infection. phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns)(3,4,5)P3 is mainly formed by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and can be dephosphorylated by SH2-containing inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatase (SHIP2) to generate PtdIns(3,4)P2. In this review, we will discuss the effects of SHIP2 and PI3K on the formation of cell polarity and how their expression and activation are modulated by HCV infection, leading to the disruption of cell polarity. This pathway is also discussed in the event of insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease related to HCV infection.