HBV cccDNA, the template for transcription of all viral mRNAs, accumulates in the nucleus of infected cells as a stable episome organized into minichromosomes by histones and non-histone viral and cellular proteins. Using a cccDNA-specific chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-based quantitative assay, we have previously shown that transcription of the HBV minichromosome is regulated by epigenetic changes of cccDNA-bound histones and that modulation of the acetylation status of cccDNA-bound H3/H4 histones impacts on HBV replication. We now show that the cellular histone acetyltransferases CBP, p300, and PCAF/GCN5, and the histone deacetylases HDAC1 and hSirt1 are all recruited in vivo onto the cccDNA. We also found that the HBx regulatory protein produced in HBV replicating cells is recruited onto the cccDNA minichromosome, and the kinetics of HBx recruitment on the cccDNA parallels the HBV replication. As expected, an HBV mutant that does not express HBx is impaired in its replication, and exogenously expressed HBx transcomplements the replication defects. p300 recruitment is severely impaired, and cccDNA-bound histones are rapidly hypoacetylated in cells replicating the HBx mutant, whereas the recruitment of the histone deacetylases hSirt1 and HDAC1 is increased and occurs at earlier times. Finally, HBx mutant cccDNA transcribes significantly less pgRNA. Altogether our results further support the existence of a complex network of epigenetic events that influence cccDNA function and HBV replication and identify an epigenetic mechanism (i.e., to prevent cccDNA deacetylation) by which HBx controls HBV replication.histone acetylation ͉ HATs ͉ HDACs H epatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major health problem, with Ϸ400 million people chronically infected worldwide who are at high risk of developing liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (1). The epidemiological evidence linking HBV infection to HCC is very strong, and despite the mechanisms underlying HBV-associated carcinogenesis remain to be fully defined, a growing number of studies support a direct role of HBV in the process (2-5). The HBV-encoded regulatory protein hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx) is thought to contribute to HBV oncogenicity (5, 6). HBx transforms SV40-immortalized murine hepatocytes, induces cell cycle progression within the regenerating liver, causes liver cancer in some transgenic mice, and acts as a cofactor to accelerate cancer development in other mouse models (6-11). HBx is a 154-amino acid protein with an N-terminal negative regulatory domain and C-terminal transactivation or coactivation domain that has been detected both in the cytoplasm and in the nuclei of infected hepatocytes (6,12,13). Studies in transfected cells have shown that HBx expression affects several cellular functions such as cytoplasmic calcium regulation, cell signaling, transcription, cell proliferation, DNA repair, and apoptosis (11, 13-16). To perform its multiple functions, HBx interacts with many cellular partners including the tumor suppressor p53,...

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HBV infection remains a leading cause of death worldwide. IFN-α inhibits viral replication in vitro and IntroductionHepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection remains a major health problem worldwide despite the availability of a highly effective preventive vaccine. HBV is a noncytopathic hepatotropic DNA virus that belongs to the family Hepadnaviridae, whose members share a distinctive strategy for replication. HBV replication occurs in the cytoplasm within viral capsids (core particles), where a genomesized RNA replicative intermediate, termed the pregenome (pgRNA), is converted by the virally encoded RNA-dependent and DNA-dependent reverse transcriptase/polymerase into a specific open circular (OC) duplex DNA (1). Transcription in the nucleus of the pgRNA from the covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) is the critical step for genome amplification and ultimately determines the rate of HBV replication (2). The cccDNA, which also serves as the template for the transcription of all viral messenger RNAs, is organized into a minichromosome in the nuclei of infected hepatocytes by histone and nonhistone proteins, and its function is regulated, similarly to cellular chromatin, by the activity of nuclear transcription factors, transcriptional coactivators and corepressors, and chromatin-modifying enzymes (2-4).Current antiviral therapies involve the use of nucleoside analogs and pegylated IFN-α (5). IFN-α, a type I IFN, engages the IFN-α/β receptor complex to activate the intracellular Jak/Stat signaling pathway, which modulates the transcription of a diverse set of target genes, referred to as IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) (6). ISG