A double-spliced defective hepatitis B virus genome derived from hepatocellular carcinoma tissue enhanced replication of full-length virus

In hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication cycle, pregenomic RNA undergoes splicing and the reverse transcribed defective genomes can be packaged and released. Various types of spliced defective HBV genomes have been isolated from the sera and liver tissues of viral hepatitis B patients. To explore the functions of a 2.2 kb double spliced HBV variant, a 3.2 kb full-length HBV isolate (#97–34) and its 2.2 kb double-spliced HBV variant (#AP–12) from the tumor tissue of a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were amplified and cloned. Sequencing results showed that #AP12 had deletions in pre-S2, part of pre-S1, S genes, part of the spacer, and part of the reverse transcriptase gene, while the X gene was intact. When this defective double-spliced genome and its full-length counterpart genome were co-transfected into HepG2 cells, the former was shown to enhance the replication of the latter, both by real-time PCR and Southern blotting. When a replication incompetent clone 97–34G1881A was used to co-transfect with #AP12, #AP12 DNA was increased, indicating that replication of the wild-type virus was not the only factor involved in this observation. However, the replication enhancing competency of #AP12 was shown to require an intact HBV X expression cassette. The double-spliced defective variant might contribute to persistent HBV replication in a subpopulation of HCC patients. J. Med. Virol. 81:230–237, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.