| isolation of a hepadnavirus from the woolly monkey, a new world primate. | hepatitis b virus (hbv) infections are a major worldwide health problem with chronic infections leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer. viruses related to human hbv have been isolated from birds and rodents, but despite efforts to find hepadnaviruses that infect species intermediate in evolution between rodents and humans, none have been described. we recently isolated a hepadnavirus from a woolly monkey (lagothrix lagotricha) that was suffering from fulminant hepatitis. phylogenetic analysis of ... | 1998 | 9576957 |
| efficient infection of primary tupaia hepatocytes with purified human and woolly monkey hepatitis b virus. | the asian tree shrew, tupaia belangeri, has been proposed as a novel animal model for studying hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection. here, we describe a protocol for efficient and reproducible infection of primary tupaia hepatocytes with hbv. we report that human serum interferes with hbv binding to the hepatocytes, thus limiting the maximum multiplicity of infection. purification of hbv virions by gradient sedimentation greatly enhances virus binding and infectivity. covalently closed circular dna ... | 2001 | 11333889 |
| conserved transactivating and pro-apoptotic functions of hepadnaviral x protein in ortho- and avihepadnaviruses. | two established activities of the multifunctional human hepatitis b virus x-protein are its transactivating and pro-apoptotic potential. we analysed whether x-proteins from other orthohepadnaviruses and the newly discovered avihepadnaviral x-proteins have similar functions as hbx. previously, we have shown that hbx suppresses oncogenic transformation of primary rat embryo fibroblasts (ref) by induction of apoptosis. using this system, we found that the wildtype x-proteins of woodchuck, ground sq ... | 2002 | 12242658 |
| transcomplementation of core and polymerase functions of the woolly monkey and human hepatitis b viruses. | woolly monkey hepatitis b virus (wmhbv) is a new member of hepadnaviridae that was isolated from a new world monkey and is phylogenetically distinct from the hbv family. in this study, we explored the functional significance of sequence divergence in the hbv and wmhbv genomes. independently expressed tp and rt domains of the wmhbv reverse transcriptase (pol) formed a complex functional for in vitro nucleotide priming, consistent with previous results from priming reactions conducted with hbv. tr ... | 2003 | 12706082 |
| an infectious clone of woolly monkey hepatitis b virus. | members of the hepadnaviridae family have been isolated from birds, rodents, and primates. a new hepadnavirus isolated from the woolly monkey, a new world primate, is phylogenetically distinct from other primate isolates. an animal model has been established for woolly monkey hepatitis b virus (wmhbv) by using spider monkeys, since woolly monkeys are endangered. in this study, a greater-than-genome length construct was prepared without amplification by using covalently closed circular dna extrac ... | 2003 | 12829821 |
| analysis of host range phenotypes of primate hepadnaviruses by in vitro infections of hepatitis d virus pseudotypes. | hepatitis b virus (hbv) and woolly monkey hepatitis b virus (wmhbv) have natural host ranges that are limited to closely related species. the barrier for infection of primates seems to be at the adsorption and/or entry steps of the viral replication cycle, since a human hepatoma cell line is permissive for hbv and wmhbv replication following transfection of cloned dna. we hypothesized that the hbv and wmhbv envelope proteins contain the principal viral determinants of host range. as previously s ... | 2004 | 15113905 |
| mapping of the hepatitis b virus pre-s1 domain involved in receptor recognition. | hepatitis b virus (hbv) and woolly monkey hepatitis b virus (wmhbv) are primate hepadnaviruses that display restricted tissue and host tropisms. hepatitis d virus (hdv) particles pseudotyped with hbv and wmhbv envelopes (hbv-hdv and wm-hdv) preferentially infect human and spider monkey hepatocytes, respectively, thereby confirming host range bias in vitro. the analysis of chimeric hbv and wmhbv large (l) envelope proteins suggests that the pre-s1 domain may comprise two regions that affect infec ... | 2005 | 16014940 |
| prevention of hepatitis b virus infection in vivo by entry inhibitors derived from the large envelope protein. | 360 million people are chronically infected with the human hepatitis b virus (hbv) and are consequently prone to develop liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. as approved therapeutic regimens-which modulate patients' antiviral defenses or inhibit the viral reverse transcriptase-are generally noncurative, strategies interfering with other hbv replication steps are required. expanding on our demonstration that acylated peptides derived from the large hbv envelope protein block virus entry ... | 2008 | 18297057 |