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Replication of a recombinant hepatitis E virus genome tagged with reporter genes and generation of a short-term cell line producing viral RNA and proteins

Baibaswata Nayak

Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, 110029 New Delhi, India

Correspondence
Subrat Kumar Panda
pandask{at}hotmail.com

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) replication has been demonstrated in HepG2 cells transfected with full-length in vitro transcripts of an infectious cDNA clone. This cDNA clone was modified to generate several subgenomic HEV replicons with fused reporter genes. In vitro-transcribed capped RNAs generated from these were transfected into HepG2 cells. Negative-strand RNA was detected, indicating the occurrence of replication. The replicon containing an in-frame fusion of HEV ORF2 with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was positive for fluorescence, whereas no signal was observed when the replicase domain was deleted. An HEV ORF3–EGFP in-frame fusion did not yield fluorescence. Deletions introduced into ORF2 did not affect the replication competency of the viral RNA. To explore the possibility of using a reporter-gene assay to monitor the synthesis of plus- and minus-strand RNA, the EGFP gene fused to the encephalomyocarditis virus internal ribosome entry site (IRES) was inserted into partially deleted ORF2 of HEV, in both the sense [HEV–IRES–EGFP(+)] and antisense [HEV–IRES–EGFP(–)] orientations. HepG2 cells transfected with HEV–IRES–EGFP(+) and HEV–IRES–EGFP(–) vectors were positive for EGFP fluorescence. To quantify HEV replication, EGFP was replaced with Renilla luciferase (RLuc). HEV–IRES–RLuc(+) showed approximately 10-fold higher luminescence than HEV–IRES–RLuc(–). There was complete loss of activity when the helicase–replicase domain in HEV–IRES–RLuc(–) was deleted. A short-term HepG2 cell line containing the full-length viral genome in the pcDNA3 vector was established. Viral RNA and proteins (RdRp, pORF2 and pORF3) could be detected in the geneticin-resistant cells, even after the seventh passage. In the absence of a reliable cell-culture system to study HEV biology, these reporter replicons, as well as the cell line, bestow immense utility.

Present address: Department of Pathology, Ward 6-080, Feinberg School of Medicine, North Western University, 215 East Chicago Avenue, IL-60611, USA.