The role of Moloney leukemia virus 10 in hepatitis B virus expression in hepatoma cells.

Recent studies have shown that the Moloney leukemia virus 10 (Mov10), a putative RNA helicase, has very broad and potent antiretroviral activities. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has a reverse transcription process, but the potential role of Mov10 in HBV replication remains unknown. In this study, Mov10 was demonstrated to affect HBV expression in HepG2 and HepG2.2.15 cell lines. The data showed that the over-expression of exogenous Mov10 resulted in an increase of the HBsAg and HBeAg levels in the culture supernatant and HBV mRNA level in transfected cells at a low dose and resulted in a decrease at a high dose, but HBV DNA in culture supernatant was not affected. The knockdown of endogenous Mov10 expression through siRNA treatment could suppress levels of HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV mRNA, but had no effect on HBV DNA. Above results indicate that an appropriate level of exogenous Mov10 is responsible for HBV replication, that any perturbation in the level of Mov10 could affect HBV replication, while the endogenous Mov10 could promote HBV replication in vitro. The precise mechanisms that underlie the action of Mov10 on HBV still need further investigation.