Background: Host genome integration of HBV sequence is considered to be significant in HBV antigen expression and the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Method: We developed a probe-based capture strategy to enrich integrated HBV DNA for deep-sequencing analysis of integration sites in paired patient samples derived from tumor, liver tissue adjacent to tumor, saliva and plasma, as a platform for exploring the correlation, significance and utility of detecting integrations in these sample types.
Results: Most significantly, alpha fetoprotein levels significantly correlated to the amounts of integrations detected in tumor.
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer patients often display dysfunctional antitumor T-cell responses. Because noteworthy benefits of immune checkpoint pathway blockade, such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors, have been achieved in multiple advanced cancers, the next critical question is which mono-blockade or combinatorial blockade regimens may reinvigorate antitumor T-cell immunity in those cancer patients while limiting immune-related adverse effects. This study recruited, in total, 172 primary cancer patients (131 were blood-tumor-matched patients) who were treatment-naïve prior to the surgeries or biopsies covering the eight most prevalent types of cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Rev Drug Discov
November 2019
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common cause of liver disease globally, with a disproportionately high burden in South-East Asia. Vaccines and nucleoside or nucleotide drugs are available and reduce both new infection rates and the development of liver disease in HBV-positive persons who adhere to long-term suppressive treatment. Although there is still considerable value in optimizing access to virus-suppressing regimens, the scientific and medical communities have embarked on a concerted journey to identify new antiviral drugs and immune interventions aimed at curing infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPacBio sequencing is a powerful approach to study DNA or RNA sequences in a longer scope. It is especially useful in exploring the complex structural variants generated by random integration or multiple rearrangement of endogenous or exogenous sequences. Here, we present a tool, TSD, for complex structural variant discovery using PacBio targeted sequencing data.
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