RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Kandpal, Manish A1 Samal, Jasmine A1 Biswas, Banhi A1 Negi, Avinash A1 Mishra, Vikash C. A1 Tyagi, Neetu A1 Raina, Vimarsh A1 Vivekanandan, PerumalYR 2015 T1 Enhanced hepatitis B virus (HBV) pre-genomic RNA levels and higher transcription efficiency of defective HBV genomes JF Journal of General Virology, VO 96 IS 10 SP 3109 OP 3117 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.000256 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB Defective hepatitis B virus (dHBV) particles contain genomes corresponding to singly spliced HBV RNA. A limited number of studies show that dHBV is present in all chronically HBV-infected patients. Clinical studies have linked dHBV and dHBV gene products to high virus loads and liver damage. The replication characteristics of dHBV genomes remain poorly understood. We found that the splice donor/acceptor sites critical for the formation of dHBV genomes are conserved across HBV genotypes. We report a novel method to create dHBV constructs from corresponding wild-type (WT) HBV constructs. We assessed the transcriptional characteristics of the dHBV constructs with those of the corresponding WT construct using a cell culture model. Interestingly, dHBV constructs had higher pre-genomic RNA levels, transcription efficiency, HBV e antigen levels and intracellular HBV core antigen levels compared with the corresponding WT HBV constructs. Our findings highlight previously unrecognized fundamental molecular characteristics of dHBV genomes and their potential role in the pathogenesis of HBV infection., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.000256