PRMT5 promotes HBV transcriptions by affecting the histone modifications of HBV genome
Dr. Tao Cheng (Post-doctoral Fellow)
[Supervisor: Professor Dong-Yan Jin]

Hepatitis B can cause a chronic infection that eventually results in cirrhosis and liver cancer, thus threatening a major global health. Understanding how HBV transcriptions are regulated could contribute to finding the potential targets of the novel therapy of HBV infection. Protein arginine N-methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) is an enzyme that symmetrically dimethylates histones linked to a range of transcriptional regulatory events. However, there is a controversy about the function of PRMT5 in the HBV life cycle. In this study, our data suggested that PRMT5 promotes HBV transcriptions. To further investigate the molecular mechanisms, we observed that PRMT5 could affect the histone modifications of HBV genome. In conclusion, our findings about the functions of PRMT5 in HBV transcriptions may indicate that PRMT5 is a potential target for HBV therapy.

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