Interferon-α modulates HBV specific T-cell response to inhibit viral gene expression in chronic HBV infection mouse model / 中国感染与化疗杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the antiviral effect and mechanism of interferon-α (IFN-α) in chronic HBV infection mouse model by hydrodynamic tail vein injection. Methods Chronic HBV infection mouse model was constructed with C57BL/6j mice by hydrodynamic tail vein injection of pAAV-HBV1.2 plasmid. Serum IFN-α was determined by ELISA after injection of IFNα- expressing plasmid (i.e., plasmid pKCMvint.IFN-α-2a) or control plasmid pKCMvint. HBsAg and HBeAg levels were assayed on Abbot ARCHITECT i2000SR. Total lymphocytes in liver or spleen were counted and the frequency and function of CD8+T cells and HBV-specific CD8+T cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Results Serum IFN-α expression level was significantly higher in the animals injected with pKCMvint.IFN-α-2a plasmid than in control group (P＜0.01). Serum HBsAg decreased quickly 12 days after injection and significantly lower than control group. Serum HBeAg was undetectable after IFN-α expression. Interestingly, the frequency of CD8+T cells in the liver of animals injected with pKCMvint.IFN-α-2a plasmid was significant higher than control group (P＜0.05), while total liver lymphocytes and HBV-specific CD8+T cells had a similar trend. Consistently, the HBV-specific CD8+T cells in IFN-α-expressing animals showed higher level of producing IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-2 than control group. IFN-γ production was significantly different between IFN-α- expressing group and control group (P＜0.05). Conclusions IFN-α can increase the frequency and function of liver CD8+T cells to inhibit HBV gene expression in chronic HBV infection mouse model.