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Epigenetics has enthralled humanity as a form of genetic alteration that may underlie different human cancers. Among these cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a threatening disease and one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide. This review attempts to summarize the scientific work examining the hypermethylation of promoters for tumor suppressor genes to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the development of HCC. Data shows that the development of HCC is a multistep phenomenon where varying promoter methylation profiles can be observed. Moreover, HCV-mediated HCC has been linked to hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes. Evidence suggests that HCV Core, NS3, NS4b, and NS5a can potentially inhibit tumor suppressor genes. Therefore, HCV genes disrupt the function of host tumor suppressor genes by inducing epigenetic modifications that result in tumor progression.
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Aftab et al. (2025) studied this question.
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