Viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease: how an unwelcome guest makes pâté of the host

HBV and HCV (hepatitis B and C viruses respectively) affect hundreds of millions of people globally, and are a major cause of chronic liver disease, including NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). Previous work on HCV-associated fatty liver disease has implicated two transcription factors that are important in lipid metabolism, SREBP1c (sterol-regulatory-element-binding protein 1c) and the LXRalpha (liver X receptor alpha). HBV-associated fatty liver disease has been less well-studied. New work from Kim and colleagues in this issue of the Biochemical Journal has provided new insight into how HBV causes fatty liver disease. Investigating HBV's so-called X gene product (HBx), they report that this viral protein directly binds to LXRalpha in the host liver cells to up-regulate the lipogenic transcription factor, SREBP1c. Also discussed in this commentary is another way that viruses such as HBV and HCV could induce SREBP1c-mediated lipogenesis, via the PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase)-Akt signalling pathway.