PRELIMINARY STUDY ON BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HBV POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATORY ELE- MENTS POINT MUTATION / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

To explore the relationship between HPRE mutations and noncytolytic anti-HBV infection, the objective eukaryotic expression vectors were constructed by molecular cloning and PCR-based site-directed mutagensis in vitro, and identification was performed using PCR and sequencing analysis. The results showed that eukaryotic expression vectors containing HPRE segment and mutating point were constructed successfully as confirmed by sequencing analysis. The activity of CAT gene obviously increased in the T to C mutation at nt 1504 of HPRE and no alteration in the C to T(G) at nt 1508. The mutation at nt 1508 of HPRE may escape the suppression role of IFN-?on HPRE. These results suggested that the mutation of HPRE might be affected the function of HPRE and influence the regulative function of IFN-? on HPRE, but not of 1FN-? nor of TNF-?.