Abstract
The elimination of viral covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) from the nucleus of infected hepatocytes is an obstacle to achieving sustained viral clearance during antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The aim of our study was to determine whether treatment with siRNA is able to suppress viral cccDNA amplification using a HBV-transgenic mice model. The experimental results revealed that siRNAs can serve as efficient alternative anti-HBV agents, because they showed better inhibitory effect on viral replication and antigen expression in transgenic mice. More importantly, the siRNA markedly inhibited HBV cccDNA amplification.
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This work is supported by Heilongjiang Province Youth Fund (QC2010071).
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Guiqiu Li and Guotao Jiang have contributed equally to this study.
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Li, G., Jiang, G., Lu, J. et al. Inhibition of Hepatitis B Virus cccDNA by siRNA in Transgenic Mice. Cell Biochem Biophys 69, 649–654 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-9847-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-9847-1