Inhibitory effect of a HBV vector plasmid expressing A3C on HBV replication / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the inhibitory effect of a replication-defective hepatitis B virus (HBV) vector plasmid expressing A3C on HBV replication in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The HBV vector plasmisd pCH-LJ3-A3C and pCH-LJ3-hrGFP expressing A3C and hrGFP were constructed using PCR and gene recombination technique. The two recombinant plasmids were separately cotranfected into HepG2 cells along with the wild-type HBV plasmid pCH-3093. The HBV DNA in the cell cytoplasmic lysates and in the cell culture supernatant was extracted for Southern blotting, and the nucleocapsid-associated HBV DNA were amplified by PCR, cloned and sequenced.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>pCH-LJ3-A3C showed obvious inhibitory effect on HBV DNA in the cytoplasmic lysates and cell culture supernatant, causing a reduction of the HBV DNA by 31% and 40%, respectively. The pCH-LJ3-A3C plasmid was capable of editing the HBV DNA. Among the 50 sequenced clones, 36 clones had G-A mutations, with a total of 982 such mutations.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>pCH-LJ3-A3C can inhibit the replication of HBV primarily by editing HBV DNA. The pCH-LJ3-A3C plasmid may serve as a new antiviral agent against human HBV infection.</p>