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HBV replication is significantly reduced by IL-6.
- Source :
-
Journal of biomedical science [J Biomed Sci] 2009 Apr 20; Vol. 16, pp. 41. Date of Electronic Publication: 2009 Apr 20. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine with pivotal functions in the regulation of the biological responses of several target cells including hepatocytes. The level of serum IL-6 has been reported to be elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis B, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and represents the best marker of HBV-related clinical progression as compared with several other cytokines. In this study, we found that IL-6 was able to effectively suppress hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication and prevent the accumulation of HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) in a human hepatoma cell line. We also demonstrated that the suppression of HBV replication by IL-6 requires concurrently a moderate reduction of viral transcripts/core proteins and a marked decrease in viral genome-containing nucleocapsids. Studies on the stability of existing viral capsids suggest that the IL-6 effect on the reduction of genome-containing nucleocapsids is mediated through the prevention of the formation of genome-containing nucleocapsids, which is similar to the effect of interferons. However, IFN-alpha/beta and IFN-gamma did not participate in the IL-6-induced suppression of HBV replication. Taken together, our results will provide important information to better understand the role of IL-6 in the course of HBV infection.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1423-0127
- Volume :
- 16
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of biomedical science
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 19374779
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1423-0127-16-41