. 2020 May 19.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.26025. Online ahead of print.
Precise Analysis of the Effect of Basal Core Promoter/Precore Mutations on the Main Phenotype of Chronic Hepatitis B in Mouse Models
Yang Liu 1 , Zhong Hua Zhao 2 , Xiao Qin Lv 1 , Yu Wei Tang 2 , Min Cao 3 , Qin Xiang 1 , Yue Wu 4 , Hua Tang Zhang 2 , Guo Qi Lai 1
Affiliations
Affiliations
1
Chongqing Medical University Laboratory Animal Center, Chongqing, China.
2
Chongqing Academy of Science and Technology, Chongqing, China.
3
Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
4
The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
PMID: 32427358 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.26025
Abstract
High replication and mutation rates of hepatitis B virus (HBV) often lead to reduced or suppressed hepatitis B e antigen expression. The most common mutations are genomic variations in the basal core promoter (BCP) and pre-core (PC) regions. However, the effect of BCP/PC mutations on HBV phenotype in vivo remains unclear. We compared and analyzed BCP/PC mutations and BCP/PC reverse mutations in mouse models. In addition to terminating the expression of HBeAg, BCP/PC mutations also resulted in a significant decrease in HBsAg, HBV DNA, and cccDNA in the early stage, and an obvious increase in serum alanine aminotransferase throughout the transfection period. In both groups, serum HBV DNA was positively correlated with intracellular HBV DNA and cccDNA. Further, we found that IL-4 and L-10 levels were significantly lower in the BCP/PC(M) group than in the BCP/PC(R) group at 4 weeks post injection. However, IL-1β was significantly lower in the BCP/PC(M) group than in the BCP/PC(R) group at 26 weeks post injection. In summary, we precisely analyzed the effect of BCP/PC mutations on the phenotype in vivo, which is important to evaluating disease progression and treatment responses of variable chronic hepatitis B patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.