scholarly journals Hepatitis B Virus X Protein Stimulates Viral Genome Replication via a DDB1-Dependent Pathway Distinct from That Leading to Cell Death

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (7) ◽  
pp. 4238-4245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Leupin ◽  
Séverine Bontron ◽  
Céline Schaeffer ◽  
Michel Strubin

ABSTRACT The hepatitis B virus (HBV) X protein (HBx) is essential for virus infection and has been implicated in the development of liver cancer associated with chronic infection. HBx can interact with a number of cellular proteins, and in cell culture, it exhibits pleiotropic activities, among which is its ability to interfere with cell viability and stimulate HBV replication. Previous work has demonstrated that HBx affects cell viability by a mechanism that requires its binding to DDB1, a highly conserved protein implicated in DNA repair and cell cycle regulation. We now show that an interaction with DDB1 is also needed for HBx to stimulate HBV genome replication. Thus, HBx point mutants defective for DDB1 binding fail to complement the low level of replication of an HBx-deficient HBV genome when provided in trans, and one such mutant regains activity when directly fused to DDB1. Furthermore, DDB1 depletion by RNA interference specifically compromises replication of wild-type HBV, indicating that HBx produced from the viral genome also functions in a DDB1-dependent fashion. We also show that HBx in association with DDB1 acts in the nucleus and stimulates HBV replication mainly by enhancing viral mRNA levels, regardless of whether the protein is expressed from the HBV genome itself or supplied in trans. Interestingly, whereas HBx induces cell death in both HepG2 and Huh-7 hepatoma cell lines, it enhances HBV replication only in HepG2 cells, suggesting that the two activities involve distinct DDB1-dependent pathways.

2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (12) ◽  
pp. 6757-6760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Chen ◽  
Aleem Siddiqui

ABSTRACT The human hepatitis B virus (HBV) X protein (HBx) plays a crucial role(s) in the viral life cycle and contributes to the onset of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBx caused the mitochondrial translocation of Raf-1 kinase either alone or in the context of whole-viral-genome transfections. Mitochondrial translocation of Raf-1 is mediated by HBx-induced oxidative stress and was dependent upon the phosphorylation of Raf-1 at the serine338/339 and Y340/341 residues by p21-activated protein kinase 1 and Src kinase, respectively. These studies provide an insight into the mechanisms by which HBV induces intracellular events relevant to liver disease pathogenesis, including HCC.


2006 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 1714-1726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujeong Kim ◽  
Hye-Young Kim ◽  
Seungmin Lee ◽  
Sung Woo Kim ◽  
Seonghyang Sohn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The hepatitis B virus (HBV) X protein (HBx) is thought to play a key role in HBV replication and the development of liver cancer. It became apparent that HBx induces mitochondrial clustering at the nuclear periphery, but the molecular basis for mitochondrial clustering is not understood. Since mitochondria move along the cytoskeleton as a cargo of motor proteins, we hypothesized that mitochondrial clustering induced by HBx occurs by an altered intracellular motility. Here, we demonstrated that the treatment of HBx-expressing cells with a microtubule-disrupting drug (nocodazole) abrogated mitochondrial clustering, while the removal of nocodazole restored clustering within 30 to 60 min, indicating that mitochondrial transport is occurring in a microtubule-dependent manner. The addition of a cytochalasin D-disrupting actin filament, however, did not measurably affect mitochondrial clustering. Mitochondrial clustering was further studied by observations of HBV-related hepatoma cells and HBV-replicating cells. Importantly, the abrogation of the dynein activity in HBx-expressing cells by microinjection of a neutralizing anti-dynein intermediate-chain antibody, dynamitin overexpression, or the addition of a dynein ATPase inhibitor significantly suppressed the mitochondrial clustering. In addition, HBx induced the activation of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and inhibition of the p38 kinase activity by SB203580-attenuated HBx-induced mitochondrial clustering. Taken together, HBx activation of the p38 MAPK contributed to the increase in the microtubule-dependent dynein activity. The data suggest that HBx plays a novel regulatory role in subcellular transport systems, perhaps facilitating the process of maturation and/or assembly of progeny particles during HBV replication. Furthermore, mitochondrion aggregation induced by HBx may represent a cellular process that underlies disease progression during chronic viral infection.


2011 ◽  
Vol 301 (3) ◽  
pp. G565-G573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yijuan Zhang ◽  
Yunbo Li ◽  
Yifan Ma ◽  
Shuhui Liu ◽  
Yinglong She ◽  
...  

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) has been reported to inhibit hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication in the liver of HBV transgenic mice; however, the molecular mechanism of its antiviral effect has not been fully understood. In the present study, it was shown that IL-18 and its receptors (IL-18R) were constitutively expressed in hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 as well as normal liver cell line HL-7702. We demonstrated that IL-18 directly inhibited HBV replication in HepG2.2.15 cells via downregulating the activities of HBV core and X gene promoters. The suppressed HBV replication by IL-18 could be rescued by the administration of BAY11-7082, an inhibitor of transcription factor NF-κB. On the other hand, it was of interest that IL-18 promoted HepG2 cell metastasis and migration dose dependently in both wound-healing assays and Transwell assays. The underlying mechanism could be partially attributable to the increased activities of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, MMP-3, and MMP-2 by IL-18, which upregulated the mRNA levels of MMP-3 and MMP-9 in a NF-κB-dependent manner. Furthermore, it was confirmed that expression of IL-18/IL-18R and most MMPs were remarkably upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) liver cancer tissue specimens, suggesting that IL-18/IL-18R-triggered signaling pathway was closely related to HCC metastasis in vivo. Therefore, we revealed the dual effects of IL-18 in human hepatocytes: it not only inhibited HBV replication but also promoted hepatoma cells metastasis and migration. NF-κB played a critical role in both effects. Our work contributed to a deeper understanding of the biological function of IL-18 in human hepatocytes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rheza Gandi Bawono ◽  
Takayuki Abe ◽  
Mengting Qu ◽  
Daisuke Kuroki ◽  
Lin Deng ◽  
...  

Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein modification play important roles in modulating the functions of viral proteins in many viruses. Here we demonstrate that hepatitis B virus (HBV) X protein (HBx) is modified by ISG15, which is a type I IFN-inducible, ubiquitin-like protein; this modification is called ISGylation. Immunoblot analyses revealed that HBx proteins derived from four different HBV genotypes accepted ISGylation in cultured cells. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed that three lysine residues (K91, K95 and K140) on the HBx protein, which are well conserved among all the HBV genotypes, are involved in acceptance of ISGylation. Using expression plasmids encoding three known E3 ligases involved in the ISGylation to different substrates, we found that HERC5 functions as an E3 ligase for HBx-ISGylation. Treatment with type I and type III IFNs resulted in the limited suppression of HBV replication in Hep38.7-Tet cells. When cells were treated with IFN-α, silencing of ISG15 resulted in a marked reduction of HBV replication in Hep38.7-Tet cells, suggesting a role of ISG15 in the resistance to IFN-α. In contrast, the silencing of USP18 (an ISG15 de-conjugating enzyme) increased the HBV replication in Hep38.7-Tet cells. Taken together, these results suggest that the HERC5-mediated ISGylation of HBx protein confers pro-viral functions on HBV replication and participates in the resistance to IFN-α-mediated antiviral activity.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 2579-2584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenming Xu ◽  
T. S. Benedict Yen ◽  
Lanying Wu ◽  
Charles R. Madden ◽  
Wenjie Tan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Hepatitis B virus (HBV) X gene encodes a multifunctional protein that can regulate cellular signaling pathways, interact with cellular transcription factors, and induce hepatocellular oncogenesis. In spite of its diverse activities, the precise role of the X protein in the viral life cycle of HBV remains unclear. To investigate this question, we have produced transgenic mice that carry either the wild-type HBV genome or a mutated HBV genome incapable of expressing the 16.5-kDa X protein. Our results indicate that while the X protein is not absolutely essential for HBV replication or its maturation in transgenic mice, it can enhance viral replication, apparently by activating viral gene expression. These results demonstrate a transactivation role of the X protein in HBV replication in transgenic mice.


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