novel vector for study of hepatitis delta virus replication

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a highly pathogenic, hepatotropic agent in humans which requires helper function of hepatitis B Virus (HBV) [Makino1987]. The genome is a small (≅1.7 kb) single- stranded circular RNA molecule. HDV possesses on both the genomic stand (the RNA strand found in virions) and the antigenomic strand (a replicative intermediate), independent ribozymes. The ribozyme is capable of self-cleavage and re-ligation indicating its functional analogy to plant viroids [Taylor1987]. But unlike the viroids, the HDV genome codes for only one protein, the delta antigen (HDAg) [Feng –Ming Lin 2003 ]. Because of the circular character of the HDV genome and consistent with it’s resemblance to plants viroids in their need for tandem repeats to initiate replication the cloned HDV cDNA models employed to study HDV replication are constructed as dimmers or trimers [Modahl L.E 2000]. There is no cell culture suscebtible to HDV in vitro. Therefore, the system most commonly used to study HDV replication is application of HDV constructs [Sambrook J 2000]. In this study, we cloned and manipulated the monomeric full-length HDV cDNA to create a novel dimeric infectious plasmid

Keywords:

Hepatitis Delta Virus , Replication , infectious Vector