Virulence determinants in hepadnavirus infection

肝炎病毒感染的毒力决定因素

• 批准号: nhmrc : 158010
• 负责人: A/Pr Allison Jilbert
• 金额: $ 25.14万
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: NHMRC Project Grants
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2003-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://researchdata.edu.au/virulence-determinants-hepadnavirus-infection/100743
• 关键词: Virulence; determinants; hepadnavirus; infection

The human hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a member of the hepadnavirus family that includes a number of other very similar host-specific viruses. Acute HBV infection can produce extreme variation in disease, ranging from asymptomatic infection, to acute transient hepatitis with jaundice, or fulminant hepatitis leading to liver failure (Hollinger, 1996). The identification of viral genes that affect the severity of disease is a major current goal in medical virology. For example, there is considerable interest in identifying the genes of the influenza genome responsible for high mortality outbreaks; with the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, variants deleted in the nef gene region cause a less rapidly progressing infection and have attracted attention as a possible prototype for an attenuated vaccine. We propose to investigate how the different genes of hepadnaviruses affect the course of infection and type of disease produced. Studies will be performed in ducks infected with the duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) as these animals provide the only model system available in Australia. We will study both experimentally and naturally derived DHBV variants to explore the effects of genetic changes on the outcome of infection. This will enhance our understanding of this virus family and will provide models for comparison with HBV infection. This knowledge may then contribute to our ability to manage and control HBV disease in humans.

人肝炎B病毒（HBV）是嗜肝DNA病毒家族的成员，该家族包括许多其他非常相似的宿主特异性病毒。急性HBV感染可导致疾病的极端变化，从无症状感染到急性一过性肝炎伴黄疸或暴发性肝炎导致肝功能衰竭（Hollinger，1996）。鉴定影响疾病严重程度的病毒基因是医学病毒学当前的主要目标。例如，人们对确定流感基因组中导致高死亡率爆发的基因有相当大的兴趣;对于人类免疫缺陷病毒，即导致艾滋病的病毒，nef基因区域缺失的变体导致进展较慢的感染，并作为减毒疫苗的可能原型而引起关注。我们建议研究嗜肝DNA病毒的不同基因如何影响感染过程和产生的疾病类型。研究将在感染鸭B肝炎病毒（DHBV）的鸭中进行，因为这些动物提供了澳大利亚唯一可用的模型系统。我们将研究实验和自然衍生的DHBV变异，以探索遗传变化对感染结果的影响。这将增强我们对该病毒家族的理解，并将提供与HBV感染进行比较的模型。这些知识可能有助于我们管理和控制人类HBV疾病的能力。