How to select anti-hepatitis B virus agents for drug-resistance patients?

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/wjog-hts092408.php

Public release date: 24-Sep-2008

Contact: Lai-Fu Li

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World Journal of Gastroenterology

How to select anti-hepatitis B virus agents for drug-resistance patients?

HBV infection may lead to acute liver disease, chronic active hepatitis, liver

cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Over 350 million people worldwide are

estimated to be infected chronically by HBV and are therefore at risk of liver

failure, cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma. The principal treatment for

chronic hepatitis B (CHB) involves the use of interferon alpha (IFN-a) or

nucleoside analogs. In vitro analysis of clinical HBV isolates is currently

difficult for lacking of HBV cellular culture model

A research article to be published on 14 June 2008, in the World Journal of

Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Prof.

Yin-Ping Lu from Union Hospital of Tongji Medical College reportd a useful

strategy to select anti-HBV agents for drug-resistance patients. The full-length

HBV genomic DNA from chronic hepatitis B patients were amplified by polymerase

chain reaction (PCR). The amplified HBV DNA fragments were inserted into an

universal HBV expression vector respectively. The recombinant plasmids

containing 1.1 copies of HBV genome were transient transfected into Huh7 cells

and antiviral susceptibility of lamivudine and adefovir were analyzed in vitro

model system. Furthermore, the antiviral susceptibility of adefovir in vivo were

observed subsequently.

Eight clinical HBV isolates form different individual with lamivudine-resistance

were cloned into HBV expression vector, and recombinant plasmids were transcient

transfected into Huh7 cells. The results indicated that HBV genome of clinical

HBV isolates could effectively replicate and be expressed in Huh7 cells.

Adefovir but not lamivudine inhibited HBV replication both in vitro and in vivo.

The novel method described in this article enables rapidly selecting of anti-HBV

agents in clinic and will be useful in future studies of antiviral therapy for

chronic hepatitis B.

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Reference: Lu YP, Guo T, Wang BJ, Dong JH, Zhu JF, Liu Z, Lu MJ, Yang DL.

Replication of clinical HBV isolate and its application for selecting antiviral

agents for chronic hepatitis B patients. World J Gastroenterol 2008;

14(22):3490-3496

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/3490.asp