Hepatitis B virus biology and life cycle
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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle
Published on: February 1, 2017
Senko Tsukuda1, Koichi Watashi2
1Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan; Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Abstract:
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) specifically infects hepatocytes and causes severe liver diseases. The HBV life cycle is unique in that the genomic DNA (relaxed-circular partially double-stranded DNA: rcDNA) is converted to a molecular template DNA (covalently closed circular DNA: cccDNA) to amplify a viral RNA intermediate, which is then reverse-transcribed back to viral DNA. The highly stable characteristics of cccDNA result in chronic infection and a poor rate of cure. This complex life cycle of HBV offers a variety of targets to develop antiviral agents. We provide here an update on the current knowledge of HBV biology and its life cycle, which may help to identify new antiviral targets.
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