Interspecies comparison of the early transcriptomic changes associated with hepatitis B virus exposure in human and macaque immune cell populations.

Background and Aims: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection affects 300 million individuals worldwide, representing a major factor for the development of hepatic complications. Although existing antivirals are effective in suppressing replication, eradication of HBV is not achieved. Therefore, a multi-faceted approach involving antivirals and immunomodulatory agents is required. Non-human primates are widely used in pre-clinical studies due to their close evolutionary relationship to humans. Nonetheless, it is fundamental to identify the differences in immune response between humans and these models. Thus, we performed a transcriptomic characterization and interspecies comparison of the early immune responses to HBV in human and cynomolgus macaques.
Methods: We characterized early transcriptomic changes in human and cynomolgus B cells, T cells, myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) exposed to HBV ex vivo for 2 hours. Differentially-expressed genes were further compared to the profiles of HBV-infected patients using publicly-available single-cell data.
Results: HBV induced a wide variety of transcriptional changes in all cell types, with common genes between species representing only a small proportion. In particular, interferon gamma signaling was repressed in human pDCs. At the gene level, interferon gamma inducible protein 16 ( IFI16 ) was upregulated in macaque pDCs, while downregulated in humans. Moreover, IFI16 expression in pDCs from chronic HBV-infected patients anti-paralleled serum HBsAg levels.
Conclusion: Our characterization of early transcriptomic changes induced by HBV in humans and cynomolgus macaques represents a useful resource for the identification of shared and divergent host responses, as well as potential immune targets against HBV.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2023 Roca Suarez, Planel, Grand, Couturier, Tran, Porcheray, Becker, Reynier, Delgado, Cascales, Peyrot, Tamellini, Saliou, Elie, Baum, Vuong, Testoni, Roques, Zoulim, Hasan and Chemin.)