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Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle
Published on: February 1, 2017
Hepatitis B Virus X and Regulation of Viral Gene Expression
Betty L Slagle1, Michael J Bouchard2
1Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030.
Abstract:
The efficient replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) requires the HBV regulatory hepatitis B virus X (HBx) protein. The exact contributions of HBx are not fully understood, in part because of the limitations of the assays used for its study. When HBV replication is driven from a plasmid DNA, the contribution of HBx is modest. However, there is an absolute requirement for HBx in assays that recapitulate the infectious virus life cycle. There is much evidence that HBx can contribute directly to HBV replication by acting on viral promoters embedded within protein coding sequences. In addition, HBx may also contribute indirectly by modulating cellular pathways to benefit virus replication. Understanding the mechanism(s) of HBx action during virus replication may provide insight into novel ways to disrupt chronic HBV replication.
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