Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Hepatitis B chronicity: some light shed on cccDNA formation

 Approximately 257 million people are living with hepatitis B infection worldwide. Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus of the hepadnaviridae family which is a DNA virus. The virus is transmitted through the parenteral route with exposure to infected bodily fluids and replicates in hepatocytes (liver cells). Hepatitis B is a disease of the liver with symptoms including jaundice, light or grey stools, hepatic tenderness and enlargement of the liver (hepatomegaly). While most adults recover, 90% of infants, 30-50% of children between the ages 1 and 5 years and 5% of adults with the disease progress to chronic HBV that causes serious diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The development of chronic HBV is established through persistence of the virus due to the formation of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). Wei and Ploss showed in their study for the first time how cccDNA is formed from relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA). 


The genome of the virion is a double-stranded relaxed circular DNA with four lesions. These lesions are the covalently linked viral polymerase and DNA flap on the 5’-end of the negative strand and the 5’-capped RNA primer and ssDNA gap on the positive strand. After entry through the bile acid transporter (NTCP), the viral rcDNA is released into the nucleus and the four lesions on the rcDNA are repaired to form a stable cccDNA. In addition to establishing chronicity, cccDNA serves as a template for the HBV viral transcripts.  Both viral factors and host repair factors are involved in the repair process. Though Wei and Ploss identified the human factors involved in this process namely proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), the replication factor C (RFC) complex, DNA polymerase delta, flap endonuclease 1 (FEN-1), and DNA ligase 1 (LIG1), the exact mechanism by which these lead to the repair of the four lesions was not known. In their recently published work, they first showed that all five human factors are necessary for the repair of the lesions on the positive strand, whereas only FEN-1 and LIG1 are required to repair the lesions on the negative strand. Then they proceeded to understand the repair mechanism of each strand individually by monitoring the intermediates. The removal of the covalently attached viral polymerase was found to be required in the repair process with the product deproteinated rcDNA a critical repair intermediate. This research shows that the repair of the positive and negative strands are independent events with the positive strand repair resembling the maturation of Okazaki fragments. The negative-strand repair process involves a slow removal of 5’ protein adduct and removal of the DNA flap by FEN-1 leaving a nick that subsequently seals.


This remarkable work is going to be very essential in the development of therapeutics for chronic HBV infection. 


-Bethel 


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21850-9 

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/hepb.html

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was a HIV-AIDS patient and I got it from cheating on my wife. It was sort of a payback but a week later I was told by a friend that the person who I cheated with had the HIV-AIDS virus and did not tell me. I was so stupid by not using a condom I thought since he was an old school friend he was trustworthy. But I was wrong. I cried and cried. Two days later, I got a phone call from my friend and he told me about a person who is known by another friend, who can help me. I could not let my wife know what I was going through. I finally got his email address: oseremenspelltemple@gmail.com and I emailed this man my story and he replied me immediately saying i should be calm and told me that everything will be OK. I could not come to terms with what I was hearing but then I concluded it did not matter because I was so broken I just needed help. I was going out of my mind literally. I was confused with what he was telling me, but I listened. He told me about some materials i need to buy that he needed to cast the spell and I said OK. I bought the materials to him, I sent down my picture to him and my positive result sheet and he replied me that i am going to be negative under 3days. I message Him every 2hours for 2day and I knew he thought that I was crazy but I did care I needed a shoulder. Behold, the third day he messaged me i should go for a test that i will be negative. My marriage could be broken because of a stupid mistake and my life was on the line. I remembered when I was going to get the results of my re-test I called him up again and told him that I was going to get my results today and his reply was “so" and that everything will be as he explained. I knew then that he was getting tired of me calling him, maybe I was wrong. Well I got my results and the first person I called was him - again. As he said hello I started to cry and cry. I could not believe it. I was given a second chance in life.This man is a great spiritual HIV/AIDS healer, his healing spell on aids healing is very powerful .please brothers and sister, contact Dr Ose oseremenspelltemple@gmail.com
whatsapp +2348136482342

Max D said...

I panicked when I saw the first herpes sore. The medicines could not heal the sores completely, my whole life I was entirely desperate. Till I found the natural permanent cure for herpes virus through Nze Njoku Herbal Home, I felt like I was born-again. You can get rid of herpes from now on, too
Reach Nze Njoku Herbal Home on
nzenjokuherbalhome@gmail.com
+2349072733661..

Gary Amy said...

i am here to give my testimony about a doctor who save my life. i was infected with HERPES for than 2 years, I tried different doctors over a period of time but no one work, but when i came on the Internet i saw great testimony about DR USELU  how he was able to cure someone from HERPES virus with the help of herbal medicine I contacted him and he promised to cure my herpes virus.well i decided to give him a try, DR USELU put his best in it and gave me good and effective result just as he has promised. well after taking all the treatment sent to me by Dr USELU i went back to the Hospital for check up, and now i have been confirmed HERPES Negative. You can contact him if you have any kind of sickness like, HERPES, HIV, CANCER, PILE, HEPATITIS, DIABETES, and alot more you can contact him ON Whatsapp (+2347052898482) or Email dr.dr.uselucaregiver@gmail.com