Presence of Hepatitis B virus infection in colon cancer

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection affects [~]300 million people worldwide, which population is at an elevated risk of various cancers, such as gastrointestinal cancer, while the matter behind is largely unclear. In this study, we analyzed 10 colonic specimens from 6 colon cancer patients who were also chronic HBV carriers through Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorting and Immunofluorescence assay to inspect the expression of HBsAg (HBV surface antigen), NTCP (current known cellular receptor of HBV) and CD45 (common marker for immune cells) proteins in single-cell resolution. We found that presence of HBsAg in colonic cells was observed in specimens from all patients, and the proportions of HBV-infected cells were higher in tumors than normal tissues. Strikingly, HBsAg in both immune cells and NTCP-negative cells were also observed in all the patients. In vitro experiments further demonstrated that colonic cells expressing NTCP were indeed highly suspectable to HBV infection. Hence, HBV could infect colonic cells (including immune ones) and may play roles during tumorigenesis in colon cancer.