Name: development of a hepatitis b virus reporter system to monitor the early stages of the replication cycle
Uploaded: 2017-02-01T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle at JoVE.com

This work was supported in part by the Research Program on Hepatitis from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and by Grants-in-Aids for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.

1. Production of Recombinant HBV Encoding the Reporter Protein
<ol>
	<li>Preparation of HepG2 cells
	<ol>
		<li>Prepare cell culture medium (Dulbecco&#39;s modified Eagle&#39;s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 &#181;g/ml streptomycin, and 100 U/ml nonessential amino acids).</li>
		<li>Plate 4 x 106 HepG2 cells in a 10-cm collagen-coated dish in 10 ml of culture medium the day before transfection. Incubate HepG2 cells at 37 &#176;C in a hu...

<ol>
	<li>Fattovich, G., Stroffolini, T., Zagni, I., Donato, F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Hepatocellular+carcinoma+in+cirrhosis:+incidence+and+risk+factors.">Hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis: incidence and risk factors.</a> Gastroenterology. 127 (5), 35-50 (2004).</li><li>Revill, P., Testoni, B., Locarnini, S., Zoulim, F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Global+strategies+are+required+to+cure+and+eliminate+HBV+infection.">Global strategies are required to cure and eliminate HBV infection.</a> Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 13 (4), 239-248 (2016).</li><li>Wursthorn, K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Peginterferon+alpha-2b+plus+adefovir+induce+strong+cccDNA+decline+and+HBsAg+reduction+in+patients+with+chronic+hepatitis+B.">Peginterferon alpha-2b plus adefovir induce strong cccDNA decline and HBsAg reduction in patients with chronic hepatitis B.</a> Hepatology. 44 (3), 675-684 (2006).</li><li>Stuyver, L. 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J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Development+of+replicative+and+nonreplicative+hepatitis+B+virus+vectors.">Development of replicative and nonreplicative hepatitis B virus vectors.</a> Gene. Ther. 4 (12), 1330-1340 (1997).</li><li>Hong, R., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Novel+recombinant+hepatitis+B+virus+vectors+efficiently+deliver+protein+and+RNA+encoding+genes+into+primary+hepatocytes.">Novel recombinant hepatitis B virus vectors efficiently deliver protein and RNA encoding genes into primary hepatocytes.</a> J. Virol. 87 (12), 6615-6624 (2013).</li><li>Hall, M. P., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Engineered+luciferase+reporter+from+a+deep+sea+shrimp+utilizing+a+novel+imidazopyrazinone+substrate.">Engineered luciferase reporter from a deep sea shrimp utilizing a novel imidazopyrazinone substrate.</a> ACS. Chem. Biol. 7 (11), 1848-1857 (2012).</li><li>Nishitsuji, H., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Novel+reporter+system+to+monitor+early+stages+of+the+hepatitis+B+virus+life+cycle.">Novel reporter system to monitor early stages of the hepatitis B virus life cycle.</a> Cancer. 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Volume 1. , 2185-2221 (2013).</li><li>Moolla, N., Kew, M., Arbuthnot, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Regulatory+elements+of+hepatitis+B+virus+transcription.">Regulatory elements of hepatitis B virus transcription.</a> J. Viral. Hepat. 9 (5), 323-331 (2002).</li><li>Cattaneo, R., Will, H., Schaller, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Hepatitis+B+virus+transcription+in+the+infected+liver.">Hepatitis B virus transcription in the infected liver.</a> EMBO. J. 3 (9), 2191-2196 (1984).</li><li>Enders, G. H., Ganem, D., Varmus, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mapping+the+major+transcripts+of+ground+squirrel+hepatitis+virus:+the+presumptive+template+for+reverse+transcriptase+is+terminally+redundant.">Mapping the major transcripts of ground squirrel hepatitis virus: the presumptive template for reverse transcriptase is terminally redundant.</a> Cell. 42 (1), 297-308 (1985).</li><li>Haines, K. M., Loeb, D. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+sequence+of+the+RNA+primer+and+the+DNA+template+influence+the+initiation+of+plus-strand+DNA+synthesis+in+hepatitis+B+virus.">The sequence of the RNA primer and the DNA template influence the initiation of plus-strand DNA synthesis in hepatitis B virus.</a> J. Mol. Biol. 370 (3), 471-480 (2007).</li><li>Hirsch, R. C., Lavine, J. 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The HBV genome has four primary open reading frames (ORFs) including the core, polymerase, surface and X ORFs (Figure 1). Transcription of these four HBV ORFs is tightly regulated by four promoters: the precore/core promoter containing enhancer II, S1 promoter, S2 promoter and X promoter containing enhancer I18. The 3.5 kb and 3.4 kb mRNAs are translated into PreCore and Core proteins, respectively. The large envelop protein (L) is produced from the largest subgenomic mRNA (2.5 kb...

Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major risk factor for chronic liver diseases1. Although current therapeutic strategies are based on nucleotide analogs that inhibit HBV pol function and/or the administration of type I interferon that activates immune responses in infected individuals as well as indirectly suppressing HBV proliferation through interferon-stimulated gene functions2, these treatments cannot eliminate HBV DNA completely3. Moreover, the emergence of HBVs that are resistant to anti-pol agents is of concern4. The administration of combined anti-viral agents directly targeting the different steps of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) life cycle was shown to successfully suppress or eradicate the virus(es). Similar to this idea, the development of anti-HBV agent(s) that act directly on the different stages of the HBV life cycle is important for establishing future HBV therapies.
In general, the establishment of a simple in vitro culture system of the target virus facilitates the development of anti-virus agents. However, there are at least two barriers to the development of in vitro culture systems to screen anti-HBV agents. The first is the lack of a convenient in vitro cell culture system for HBV infection/proliferation. Unlike other viruses, such as HIV and HCV, which are propagated in established cell lines, it is difficult to cultivate HBV in vitro because of experimental limitations including a narrow host range. The use of specific cell culture systems such as the human hepatoma cell line HepaRG, which is susceptible to HBV infection,5,6,7 have been developed to overcome these problems. Moreover, PXB cells, isolated from urokinase-type plasminogen activator transgenic/SCID mice inoculated with primary human hepatocyte (PHH), were shown to be susceptible to HBV infection and replication8. However, HBV replication levels in HepaRG are dependent on the cellular differentiation state after culture, which can cause inconsistent and irreproducible results of HBV infection/replication levels. PXB is commonly used for HBV infection experiments but is limited by its availability. A tetracycline inducible HBV expression cell line, HepAD38, has also been widely used to study HBV replication, but this system only allows evaluation after transcription and not at the entry step of HBV infection9. Recently, the identification of sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) as a functional receptor for HBV has allowed the development of a variable HBV culture system10. Indeed, NTCP expression in non-susceptible hepatocarcinoma cells such as Huh7 and HepG2 enables HBV infection10 and thus, the choice of HBV susceptible cell lines has been expanded, resolving many of the experimental limitations. The second problem is the lack of a simple assay system to evaluate HBV infection and replication. Evaluation of HBV infection is usually conducted by analyzing HBV DNA, RNA and proteins. However, quantification of these virus markers is time consuming, often costly and not always simple. Therefore, the development of a simple assay system, such as using a reporter gene, might overcome problems associated with HBV assay systems.
However, because the genome size that can be packaged into an HBV capsid is limited &#8212; less than 3.7 kb11 &#8212; the size of a reporter gene should be as short as possible. Furthermore, the presence of multiple cis elements scattered throughout the genome, which are essential for viral replication, limits the positions available for insertion of the reporter gene into the genome. Several reports have attempted to insert foreign genes, including HIV-1 Tat, green fluorescent protein, and DsRed, into the HBV genome11,12,13. However, these recombinant HBVs are not useful for screening HBV infection/replication, or for the high-throughput screening of factors affecting HBV infection/replication. This is mainly because of the low productivity of recombinant viruses and the reduced intensity of reporter gene expression caused by inefficient virus production.
To overcome these issues, we constructed a reporter HBV with a high yield of virus production. This virus is highly sensitive for monitoring the early stages of the HBV replication cycle, from entry to transcription. To achieve this, NanoLuc (NL) was chosen as a marker gene because it is a small (171 amino acids) engineered luminescent reporter14. Moreover, NL is approximately 150-fold brighter than firefly or Renilla luciferase, and the luminescent reaction is ATP-independent, suggesting that the false hit rate will be low for high-throughput screening. The production efficiency of the recombinant HBV is approximately 1/5 of the parent HBV, and similar to levels reported for previous HBV recombinant viruses; however, the brightness of NL overcomes virus productivity issues so it can be used for the mass screening of anti-HBV agents.
Screening of anti-HBV agents using primary hepatocytes, HepaRG, HepAD38 and NTCP-transduced hepatocytes might be useful for the screening of anti-HBV agents by conventional method(s). However, the system described here has various advantages such as simple handling, high sensitivity, and low cost for screening. These advantages are suitable for high throughput assays to develop and identify new HBV agents for therapeutic purposes.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="781">
	<colgroup>
		<col />
		<col />
		<col />
		<col />
	</colgroup>
	<tbody>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:332px;">Nano-Glo Luciferase Assay Regent</td>
			<td style="width:201px;">Promega</td>
			<td style="width:160px;">N1110</td>
			<td style="width:88px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Penicillin-Streptomycin Mixed Solution</td>
			<td>Nacalai tesque</td>
			<td>09367-34&#160;</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">MEM Non-Essential Amino Acids Solution</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11140050</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">DMEM</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11995065</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Opti-MEM I Reduced Serum Medium</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>31985070</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="18">
			<td height="18" style="height:18px;width:332px;">100 mm/collagen-coated dish</td>
			<td>Iwaki</td>
			<td>4020-010</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Lipofectamine 3000 Transfection Reagent</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>L3000001&#160;</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>81255</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>89510</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">NaCl</td>
			<td>Nacalai tesque</td>
			<td>31319-45&#160;</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">0.5 mol/l-EDTA Solution</td>
			<td>Nacalai tesque</td>
			<td>06894-14&#160;</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Tris-HCl</td>
			<td>Nacalai tesque</td>
			<td>35434-21</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Millex-HP, 0.45 &#956;m, polyethethersulfone, filter</td>
			<td>Merck Millipore</td>
			<td>SLHP033RS</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>D2650</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Collagen coated 96-well plate</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>NO3585</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Passive Lysis 5xBuffer</td>
			<td>Promega</td>
			<td>E1941</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">GloMax 96 Microplate Luminometer</td>
			<td>Promega</td>
			<td>E6501</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Sucrose</td>
			<td>Nacalai tesque</td>
			<td>30403-55</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Luminometer plate</td>
			<td>Greiner bio-one</td>
			<td>655075</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">HepG2-NTCP1-myc-clone22</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>Reference 15</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">pUC1.2HBV delta epsilon</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>Reference 15</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">pUC1.2HBV/NL</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td>Reference 15</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">50 ml tube</td>
			<td>Violamo</td>
			<td>1-3500-02</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Anti-Myc antibody</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C3956</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">HBIG</td>
			<td>Japan Blood Products Organization</td>
			<td>-</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">IFN-&#946;</td>
			<td>Mochida Pharmaceutical</td>
			<td>14987224005413</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Heparin</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>H3393</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

development of a hepatitis b virus reporter system to monitor the early stages of the replication cycle

Currently, it is possible to construct recombinant forms of various viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), that carry foreign genes such as a reporter or marker protein in their genomes. These recombinant viruses usually faithfully mimic the life cycle of the original virus in infected cells and exhibit the same host range dependence. The development of a recombinant virus enables the efficient screening of inhibitors and the identification of specific host factors. However, to date the construction of recombinant hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been difficult because of various experimental limitations. The main limitation is the compact genome size of HBV, and a fairly strict genome size that does not exceed 1.3 genome sizes, that must be packaged into virions. Thus, the size of a foreign gene to be inserted should be smaller than 0.4 kb if no deletion of the genome DNA is to be performed. Therefore, to overcome this size limitation, the deletion of some HBV DNA is required. Here, we report the construction of recombinant HBV encoding a reporter gene to monitor the early stage of the HBV replication cycle by replacing part of the HBV core-coding region with the reporter gene by deleting part of the HBV pol coding region. Detection of recombinant HBV infection, monitored by the reporter activity, was highly sensitive and less expensive than detection using the currently available conventional methods to evaluate HBV infection. This system will be useful for a number of applications including high-throughput screening for the identification of anti-HBV inhibitors, host factors and virus-susceptible cells.

Figure 1 shows a schematic of the HBV genome, transcribed RNAs, virus proteins and their coding region on the genome. The reporter gene and its location in the genome are also indicated. Figure 2 shows the HBV reporter plasmid and helper plasmid containing the reporter gene. The pUC1.2HBV/NL reporter was constructed by deleting nucleotide positions 223-811 from the transcription initiation site of the preCore mRNA of pUC1.2HBV16 an...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle at JoVE.com

Development of a Hepatitis B Virus Reporter System to Monitor the Early Stages of the Replication Cycle

Here we describe a newly developed hepatitis B virus (HBV) reporter system to monitor the early stages of the HBV life cycle. This simplified in vitro system will aid in the screening of anti-HBV agents using a high-throughput strategy.

Currently, it is possible to construct recombinant forms of various viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV), ...

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Natural killer (NK) cells belong to the innate immune system and are a first-line anti-cancer immune defense; however, they are suppressed in the tumor ...

Assembly and Purification of Prototype Foamy Virus Intasomes

A defining feature and necessary step of the retrovirus life cycle is the integration of the viral genome into the host genome. All retroviruses encode an ...

Rapid, Safe, and Simple Manual Bedside Nucleic Acid Extraction for the Detection of Virus in Whole Blood Samples

The rapid diagnosis of an infection is essential for the outbreak management, risk containment, and patient care. We have previously shown a method for ...