Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is the agent responsible for the most severe form of human viral hepatitis. The HDV genome consists of a single‐stranded circular RNA molecule that encodes for one single protein, the delta antigen. Given its simplicity, HDV must make use of several host cellular proteins to accomplish its life cycle processes, including transcription, replication, post‐transcriptional, and post‐translational modifications. Consequently, identification of the interactions established between HDV components and host proteins assumes a pivotal interest in the search of novel therapeutic targets. Here, we used the yeast three‐hybrid system to screen a human liver cDNA library to identify host proteins that interact with the HDV genomic RNA. One of the identified proteins corresponded to the splicing factor SF3B155, a component of the U2snRNP complex that is essential for the early recognition of 3′ splice sites in the pre‐mRNAs of human genes. We show that the interaction between the HDV genomic RNA and SF3B155 occurs in vivo and that the expression of HDV promotes changes in splicing of human genes whose alternative splicing is SF3B155‐dependent. We further show that expression of HDV triggers alterations in several constitutive and alternative splicing events in the tumor suppressor RBM5 transcript, with consequent reduction of its protein levels. This is the first description that HDV expression promotes changes in the splicing of human genes, and we suggest that the HDV‐induced alternative splicing changes, through SF3B155 sequester, may contribute for the early progression to hepatocellular carcinoma characteristic of HDV‐infected patients.
Introduction Menstrual psychosis was first described in the 18th century. Brockington defined its characteristics: acute onset; brief duration with full recovery; confusion, stupor and mutism, delusions, hallucinations, or a manic syndrome and periodicity in temporal association with the menstrual cycle. Objectives Description of a clinical case of menstrual psychosis and review of the literature. Methods Description of a clinical case. Non systematic review of the literature, searching the terms “psychosis”; “menstrual”; “catamenial” in the databases Pubmed, Medline and Cochrane. Results Female, 39-year-old patient. No psychiatric history until the postpartum period of a traumatic vaginal birth, when she developed stupor and mutism which lasted for two days. During the following 2 years, she progressively presented with sadness, asthenia, anhedonia, insomnia and incapacity for self-care. She was prescribed paroxetine and olanzapine, with partial recovery. Subsequently, she had at least 6 episodes with about 3-day duration of asthenia, food refusal, insomnia, incapacity for self-care, disorganization of thought and behavior and mystical and persecutory delusions, coincident with the beginning of menstruation. She was hospitalized in two of them and received treatment with venlafaxine 75mg and paliperidone 6mg, with psychotic symptoms remission after a week. Conclusions This case presents the characteristics of menstrual psychosis. This is a rare condition, with only 30 reported cases worldwide. According to current classification systems, this condition fulfills diagnostic criteria for brief psychotic disorder. Nonetheless, studying in more detail this disorder could be interesting, with the goal of deepening the knowledge of the neurobiology of psychosis, particularly the effects of estrogen on this disorder. Disclosure No significant relationships.
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