In vivo antiviral efficacy of prenylation inhibitors against hepatitis delta virus.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) can dramatically worsen liver disease in patients coinfected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). No effective medical therapy exists for HDV. The HDV envelope requires HBV surface antigen proteins provided by HBV. Once inside a cell, however, HDV can replicate its genome in the absence of any HBV gene products. In vitro, HDV virion assembly is critically dependent on prenyl lipid modification, or prenylation, of its nucleocapsid-like protein large delta antigen. To overcome limitations of current animal models and to test the hypothesis that pharmacologic prenylation inhibition can prevent the production of HDV virions in vivo, we established a convenient mouse-based model of HDV infection capable of yielding viremia. Such mice were then treated with the prenylation inhibitors FTI-277 and FTI-2153. Both agents were highly effective at clearing HDV viremia. As expected, HDV inhibition exhibited duration-of-treatment dependence. These results provide the first preclinical data supporting the in vivo efficacy of prenylation inhibition as a novel antiviral therapy with potential application to HDV and a wide variety of other viruses.

Isolation of human fetal liver progenitors and their enhanced proliferation by three-dimensional coculture with endothelial cells.

Liver progenitor cells, characterized by the coexpression of biliary and hepatocyte lineage markers and the ability to form colonies in culture, were isolated by flow cytometry from primary human fetal livers. These prospectively isolated liver progenitor cells supported hepatitis D virus infection, expressed, and produced albumin and alpha-fetoprotein, as tracked by albumin- and alpha-fetoprotein-driven lentiviral promoter reporter constructs and measured by ELISA, respectively. Coculture in three-dimensional (3D) fibrin gel with endothelial cells resulted in the formation of vascular structures by the endothelial cells and increased proliferation of liver progenitors. The enhanced proliferation of liver progenitors that was observed when liver progenitors and endothelial cells were cultured in direct contact was not achieved when liver progenitors and endothelial cells were cultured on adjacent but separate matrices and when they were cultured across transwell membranes. In conclusion, coculture of liver progenitors and endothelial cells in three-dimensional matrix resulted in enhanced liver progenitor proliferation and function. This coculture methodology offers a novel coculture system that could be applied for the development of engineered liver tissues.

Dissecting rotavirus particle-raft interaction with small interfering RNAs: insights into rotavirus transit through the secretory pathway.

Studies of rotavirus morphogenesis, transport, and release have shown that although these viruses are released from the apical surface of polarized intestinal cells before cellular lysis, they do not follow the classic exocytic pathway. Furthermore, increasing evidence suggests that lipid rafts actively participate in the exit of rotavirus from the infected cell. In this study, we silenced the expression of VP4, VP7, and NSP4 by using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and evaluated the effect of shutting down the expression of these proteins on rotavirus-raft interactions. Silencing of VP4 and NSP4 reduced the association of rotavirus particles with rafts; in contrast, inhibition of VP7 synthesis slightly affected the migration of virions into rafts. We found that inhibition of rotavirus migration into lipid rafts, by either siRNAs or tunicamycin, also specifically blocked the targeting of VP4 to rafts, suggesting that the association of VP4 with rafts is mostly mediated by the formation of viral particles in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We showed that two populations of VP4 exist, one small population that is independently targeted to rafts and a second large pool of VP4 whose association with rafts is mediated by particle formation in the ER. We also present evidence to support the hypothesis that assembly of VP4 into mature virions takes place in the late stages of transit through the ER. Finally, we analyzed the progression of rotavirus proteins in the exocytic pathway and found that VP4 and virion-assembled VP7 colocalized with ERGIC-53, suggesting that rotavirus particles transit through the intermediate compartment between the ER and the Golgi complex.

A prenylation inhibitor prevents production of infectious hepatitis delta virus particles.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) causes both acute and chronic liver disease throughout the world. Effective medical therapy is lacking. Previous work has shown that the assembly of HDV virus-like particles (VLPs) could be abolished by BZA-5B, a compound with farnesyltransferase inhibitory activity. Here we show that FTI-277, another farnesyltransferase inhibitor, prevented the production of complete, infectious HDV virions of two different genotypes. Thus, in spite of the added complexity and assembly determinants of infectious HDV virions compared to VLPs, the former are also sensitive to pharmacological prenylation inhibition. Moreover, production of HDV genotype III virions, which is associated with particularly severe clinical disease, was as sensitive to prenylation inhibition as was that of HDV genotype I virions. Farnesyltransferase inhibitors thus represent an attractive potential class of novel antiviral agents for use against HDV, including the genotypes associated with most severe disease.