Kinetics of DNA damage repair response accompanying initial hepadnavirus-host genomic integration in woodchuck hepatitis virus infection of hepatocyte

Abstract

Mechanism of initial hepatitis B virus (HBV) integrations and kinetics of DNA repair immediately after infection remain essentially unknown impairing understanding of hepadnaviral oncogenesis. WCM260 hepatocytes susceptible to HBV-compatible woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) were examined from 15 min to 72 h post-infection (p.i.). WHV strongly induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), transiently inducible nitric oxide (iNOS) and DNA damage from 15 min p.i. All initial WHV-host fusions had the head-to-tail format indicating their formation by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Transcription of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) and X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1), the PARP1 binding partner, were induced in 30 min p.i. and that of 8-oxyguanine DNA glycosylse (OGG1) responding to oxidative DNA damage at 12 h p.i. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺), a marker of PARP1 activation, and heme oxygenase-1 (HO1), an indicator of pro-oxidative stress, were significantly augmented from 15-30 min p.i. Additionally, PARP1 cleavage activity was evident from 30 min p.i. confirming that PARP1-mediated DNA repair became operational almost instatly after hepatocyte contact with virus. By applying complementary approaches, the study showed that initial WHV integration was due to virus-induced oxidative DNA damage and implied that the NHEJ PARP1-dependent repair pathway determined format of the first virus-host DNA junctions.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Initial hepadnavirus-host genomic integration; Kinetics of DNA repair response; Oncogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma; Virus-induced oxidative DNA damage; Woodchuck hepatitis virus.