Jinah Choi

• Understanding the role of oxidative stress in viral infections
• Interaction of ethanol and hepatitis C virus (HCV)
• Mechanisms of chemical-biological and virus-host interactions to identify novel targets for therapy
• Mechanism and function of alternate frames decoding during HCV infection

Recent findings from Professor Choi's laboratory suggest that:

• HCV induces oxidative stress by specific modulation of host gene expression
• This perburbation of the host redox status has significant effects on HCV genome and its replication
• Increased oxidative stress is likely to promote the development and progression of severe liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma
• Ethanol, an important cofactor in liver diseases, elevates complete replication of HCV at physiologically relevant doses
• F protein (also known as ARFP, Core+1/F, and p17) has important biological functions during HCV infection

Profess Choi has studies in progress to define the underlying mechanisms as well as in vivo relevance of these findings.