The persistence in the liver of residual duck hepatitis B virus covalently closed circular DNA is not dependent upon new viral DNA synthesis

Georget Reaiche, Marc Le Mire, William Mason, Allison Jilbert

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Residual hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA can be detected following the resolution of acute HBV infection. Our previous work using duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) infected ducks, indicated that ~. 80% of residual DHBV DNA in the liver is in the covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) form, suggesting that viral DNA synthesis is suppressed. The current study asked more directly if maintenance of residual DHBV cccDNA is dependent upon ongoing viral DNA synthesis. Ducks that recovered from acute DHBV infection were divided into 2 groups and treated with the antiviral drug, Entecavir (ETV), or placebo. No major differences in the stability of cccDNA or levels of residual cccDNA were observed in liver biopsy tissues taken 95. days apart from ETV treated and placebo control ducks. The data suggest that residual DHBV cccDNA is highly stable and present in a cell population with a rate of turnover similar to normal, uninfected hepatocytes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)286-292
    Number of pages7
    JournalVirology
    Volume406
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2010

    Keywords

    • Antiviral therapy
    • Covalently closed circular DNA
    • Duck hepatitis B virus
    • Occult infection
    • Residual infection
    • Resolution of acute infection

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