Inhibition of replication of hepatitis B virus using transcriptional repressors that target the viral DNA

Background Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a serious global health problem. Persistence of the virus occurs as a result of stability of the replication intermediate comprising covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA). Development of drugs that are capable of disabling this cccDNA is vital. Methods To investigate an epigenetic approach to inactivating viral DNA, we engineered transcriptional repressors that comprise an HBV DNA-binding domain of transcription activator like effectors (TALEs) and a fused Krüppel Associated Box (KRAB). These repressor TALEs (rTALEs) targeted the viral surface open reading frame and were placed under transcription control of constitutively active or liver-specific promoters. Results Evaluation in cultured cells and following hydrodynamic injection of mice revealed that the rTALEs significantly inhibited production of markers of HBV replication without evidence of hepatotoxicity. Increased methylation of HBV DNA at CpG island II showed that the rTALEs caused intended epigenetic modification. Conclusions Epigenetic modification of HBV DNA is a new and effective means of inactivating the virus in vivo. The approach has therapeutic potential and avoids potentially problematic unintended mutagenesis of gene editing. Supplementary information Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12879-019-4436-y.