[Antiviral activity of a hammerhead ribozyme against HBV in HepG2.2.15 cells].
The carboxy terminal arginine  rich domain of core protein is highly conserved among HBV subtypes, and plays important roles in the packaging of pregenomic RNA and viral replication. Therefore, the 3' highly conserved region of HBV C gene is an attractive target for antiviral therapy mediated by ribozymes. A hammerhead ribozyme RzC, targeting the above site, was designed; meanwhile, as controls, the disabled form of RzC, dRzC, was also designed. In order to investigate its antiviral effects in cultured cells, in vitro-transcribed ribozymeRzC, dRzC and ribozyme expression vectors pCRzC, pCdRzC were delivered, respectively, into HepG2.2.15 cells ( clonal cells derived from HepG2 cells that contain integrated HBV ayw DNA). The preliminary results demonstrated that in vitro-transcribed ribozyme RzC had weak inhibition on HBV replication, possibly due to its quick degradation by RNases in cells, while the endogenously expressed ribozyme RzC showed significant inhibitory effect on HBV replication. In conclusion, the results suggested the possibility of the hammerhead ribozyme RzC to be used for the gene therapy of HBV infection.
Feng
Ying
Y
Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Kong
Yu-Ying
YY
Wang
Yuan
Y
Qi
Guo-Rong
GR
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D006801:Humans; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000821:virology; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014758:Viral Core Proteins