title: The use of the hydrodynamic HBV animal model to study HBV biology and anti-viral therapy.
abstract: A simple reproducible and versatile small animal model for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still unavailable. We have generated a simple transient liver-targeted transgenic mouse. Hydrodynamics tail vein injection of a head-to-tail dimer of adw HBV genome (pHBVadwHTD) into immunocompetent mice generated HBsAg and HBeAg expression in both serum and hepatocytes, followed by seroconversion. The injection of pHBVadwHTD into SCID mice generated prolonged HBsAg and HBeAg antigenemia and HBV viremia. Our results demonstrate that hydrodynamic injection of naked DNA could support the generation of HBV particles. We used this model for the assessment of anti-viral agents. Administration of our human monoclonal antibodies, HBV-Ab17(XTL) and HBV-Ab19(XTL), as well as Lamivudine (3TC) treatment suppressed HBV viremia. The model presented herein supports long and stable expression of HBV and will enable determination of various biological questions related to HBV life cycle, mutants and could enhance the development of anti-viral reagents.
authors.affiliation: Goldyne Savad Institute of Gene Therapy, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel 91120.
authors.forename: Mali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ketzinel-Gilad
authors.forename: Arie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zauberman
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nussbaum
authors.forename: Yariv
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shoshany
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ben-Moshe
authors.forename: Orit
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pappo
authors.forename: Yaakov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Felig
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ilan
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wald
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dagan
authors.forename: Eithan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Galun