Identification of an effective siRNA target site and functional regulatory elements, within the hepatitis B virus posttranscriptional regulatory element.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is major public health concern. The limitations of available antiviral drugs require development of novel approaches to inhibit HBV replication. This study was conducted to identify functional elements and new siRNA target sites within the highly conserved regions of the 533 base post-transcriptional regulatory element (PRE) of HBV RNAs.

Results

Computational analysis of the PRE sequence revealed several conserved regulatory elements that are predicted to form local secondary structures some of these within known regulatory regions. A deletion analysis showed that sub-elements of the PRE have different effects on the reporter activity suggesting that the PRE contains multiple regulatory elements. Conserved siRNA targets at nu

SUBMITTER: Panjaworayan N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2945954 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature