Developmental regulation of HBV biosynthesis by Ten-eleven translocation (Tet) methylcytosine dioxygenases

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Project Summary and Relevance. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a worldwide health problem. It is estimated that there are 200 to 500 million HBV chronic carriers in the world for whom, to date, there is no reliable treatment. HBV causes both acute and chronic liver disease and is responsible for an estimated one million deaths annually. Currently available therapies reduce viral loads but fail to resolve chronic HBV infections. Therefore, effective treatments for chronic HBV infection are urgently required. The major obstacle to the resolution of chronic HBV infections is the eradication or inactivation of nuclear HBV covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA which is the template for viral transcription. To this end, we have developed HNF1α-null HBV transgenic mice and liver-specific Tet-deficient HBV transgenic mice. HNF1α-null HBV transgenic mice synthesize nuclear HBV cccDNA, a fraction of which is extensively methylated in adult mice. Liver-specific Tet-deficient HBV transgenic mice are viable, essentially display normal liver physiology, but lack detectable HBV transcription and replication (i.e. they are effectively “cured”) suggesting Tet is also essential for viral biosynthesis. The observation that Tet-deficient HBV transgenic mice fail to support HBV biosynthesis is consistent with the suggestion that Tet is essential for the developmental demethylation of HBV genomic DNA which epigenetically governs HBV transcription by modulating viral chromatin structure in vivo. Defining the precise temporal requirements for Tet expression associated with HBV transcription and replication will indicate the liver developmental stages when viral biosynthesis is susceptible to inhibition by Tet deficiency. This will be achieved by modulating Tet expression using our recently developed tamoxifen-inducible Tet-deficient HBV transgenic mouse model system. Using this system, the developmental control of HBV transcription, viral biosynthesis and HBV DNA methylation by Tet expression will be established and correlated with the epigenetic histone marks and chromatin structure associated with the HBV genome. Similar studies will be performed using the HNF1α-null Tet-deficient HBV transgenic mouse model of chronic viral infection so the developmental control of HBV transcription, viral biosynthesis, HBV DNA methylation, epigenetic histone marks and chromatin structure by Tet expression associated with the HBV genome can be compared between the HBV transgene DNA and the nuclear HBV cccDNA. Finally, the development of HBV transgenic mice supporting viral biosynthesis exclusively from extrachromosomal genomic DNA, a more physiologically relevant mouse model of chronic viral infection, will be developed so the effect of Tet-deficiency on HBV biosynthesis derived solely from HBV cccDNA can be determined. Defining the molecular signals responsible for the loss of HBV biosynthesis due to Tet deficiency may lead to the identification of cellular therapeutic targets, including but not restricted to Tet proteins, that are amenable to the development of novel small molecular weight therapeutic inhibitors to resolve rather than simply treat chronic HBV infection.