Lieber A, He C Y, Polyak S J, Gretch D R, Barr D, Kay M A
Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
J Virol. 1996 Dec;70(12):8782-91. doi: 10.1128/JVI.70.12.8782-8791.1996.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV), a positive-strand RNA virus, is the major infectious agent responsible for causing chronic hepatitis. Currently, there is no vaccine for HCV infection, and the only therapy for chronic hepatitis C is largely ineffective. To investigate new genetic approaches to the management of HCV infection, six hammerhead ribozymes directed against a conserved region of the plus strand and minus strand of the HCV genome were isolated from a ribozyme library, characterized, and expressed from recombinant adenovirus vectors. The expressed ribozymes individually or in combination were efficient at reducing or eliminating the respective plus- or minus-strand HCV RNAs expressed in cultured cells and from primary human hepatocytes obtained from chronic HCV-infected patients. This study demonstrates the potential utility of ribozyme therapy as a strategy for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection.
丙型肝炎病毒(HCV)是一种正链RNA病毒,是导致慢性肝炎的主要感染因子。目前,尚无针对HCV感染的疫苗,且慢性丙型肝炎的唯一治疗方法在很大程度上效果不佳。为了研究治疗HCV感染的新基因方法,从一个核酶文库中分离出6种针对HCV基因组正链和负链保守区域的锤头状核酶,对其进行了表征,并通过重组腺病毒载体进行表达。所表达的核酶单独或联合使用时,能有效减少或消除在培养细胞以及从慢性HCV感染患者获得的原代人肝细胞中表达的相应正链或负链HCV RNA。本研究证明了核酶疗法作为治疗丙型肝炎病毒感染策略的潜在效用。