The enzymes LSD1 and Set1A cooperate with the viral protein HBx to establish an active hepatitis B viral chromatin state.

ABSTRACT: With about 350 million people chronically infected around the world hepatitis B is a major health problem. Template for progeny HBV synthesis is the viral genome, organized as a minichromosome (cccDNA) inside the hepatocyte nucleus. How viral cccDNA gene expression is regulated by its chromatin structure; more importantly, how the modulation of this structure impacts on viral gene expression remains elusive. Here, we found that the enzyme SetDB1 contributes to setting up a repressed cccDNA chromatin state. This repressive state is activated by the histone lysine demethylase-1 (LSD1). Consistently, inhibiting or reducing LSD1 levels led to repression of viral gene expression. This correlates with the transcriptionally repressive mark H3K9 methylation and reduction on the activating marks H3

SUBMITTER: Alarcon V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4865824 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature