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A retrovirus-based system to stably silence hepatitis B virus genes by RNA interference

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Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) might be an efficient antiviral therapy for some obstinate illness. Herein, a retrovirus-based RNAi system was developed to drive expression and delivery of Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in HepG2 cells. The levels of HBsAg and HBeAg and that of HBV mRNA were dramatically decreased by this RNAi system in HepG2 cells transfected with Topo-HBV plasmid. Retrovirus-based RNAi thus may be useful for therapy in HBV and other viral infections and provide new clues for prophylactic vaccine development.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. David R. Engelke of the University of Michigan, USA for providing the plasmid pAVU6 + 27 and Dr. DePei Liu of Peking Union Medical College, China for providing the plasmid pXSN and pXRN. We also thank Fuliang Chu for creating the figures. This work was supported by grants from National Projects 973 (Grants No. 2005CB522901 and 2001CB510001). Fang Jia is as co-training Ph.D student by the School of Life Sciences, Sichuan University (SLS) and Molecular Virology Research Center, Institute of Microbiology, CAS (MVRC). Her research work was directed and carried out in the MVRC. Therefore SLS and MVRC share the first institution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu , 610064, China

    Fang Jia & Yi-Zheng Zhang

  2. Molecular Virology Research Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing , 100080 , China

    Fang Jia & Chang-Mei Liu

Authors
  1. Fang Jia
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  2. Yi-Zheng Zhang
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  3. Chang-Mei Liu
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Correspondence to Chang-Mei Liu.

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Jia, F., Zhang, YZ. & Liu, CM. A retrovirus-based system to stably silence hepatitis B virus genes by RNA interference. Biotechnol Lett 28, 1679–1685 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9138-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-006-9138-z

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