Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) relies heavily on host functions and on structural features of the viral RNA. A good example of this reliance is found in the process known as HDV RNA editing, which requires particular structural features in the HDV antigenome, and a host RNA editing enzyme, ADAR1. During replication, the adenosine at the amber/W site in the HDV antigenome is edited to inosine. As a...

Hepatitis delta virus is the only representative of the Deltavirus genus, which consists of 7 differentiated major clades. In this study, an eighth clade was identified from 3 distinct strains. Deltavirus genetic variability should be considered for diagnostic purposes. Clinical consequences of the diversity have yet to be evaluated.

BACKGROUND The Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) can increase the incidence of fulminant hepatitis. For this infection occurs, the host must also be infected with Hepatitis B Virus. Previous studies demonstrated the endemicity and near exclusivity of this infection in the Amazon region, and as a consequence of the difficulty in accessing this area we used dried blood spots (DBS) in sample collection....

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis is a common pathway for viral entry, but little is known about the direct association of viral protein with clathrin in the cytoplasm. In this study, a putative clathrin box known to be conserved in clathrin adaptors was identified at the C terminus of the large hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg-L). Similar to clathrin adaptors, HDAg-L directly interacted with the N te...

Long term follow up of 16 homosexual men and 78 intravenous drug abusers who were chronic carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) showed fundamental differences between the two groups. Viral replication, expressed by the presence of hepatitis B e antigen, lasted for four years or more in 10 out of 14 (71%) of the homosexual men whereas it was not present in 43 out of 73 (59%) of the dru...

The small, 195-amino-acid form of the hepatitis delta virus (HDV) antigen (deltaAg-S) is essential for genome replication, i.e., for the transcription, processing, and accumulation of HDV RNAs. To better understand this requirement, we used purified recombinant deltaAg-S and HDV RNA synthesized in vitro to assemble high-molecular-weight ribonucleoprotein (RNP) structures. After transfection of ...

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is unique relative to all known animal viruses, especially in terms of its ability to redirect host RNA polymerase(s) to transcribe its 1,679-nucleotide (nt) circular RNA genome. During replication there accumulates not only more molecules of the genome but also its exact complement, the antigenome. In addition, there are relatively smaller amounts of an 800-nt RNA o...

.............................................................................................iii List of abbreviations...............................................................................v Introduction...........................................................................................1 Results: Part A.................................................................................