NOS2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Among these proteins, core and NS5A have been suggested as potentially oncogenic proteins contributing to the development of HCC during chronic HCV infection because of long-term activation of various pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) (Banerjee et al., 2010).