Antisense oligonucleotides targeting abhydrolase domain containing 2 block human hepatitis B virus propagation

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major health concern worldwide and only a minority of treated patients develop a sustained protective response following a short course of therapy, and most patients require prolonged treatment to suppress viral replication. However, several recent reports showed that inhibition of certain host cell proteins prevented viral infection, specifically the human abhydrolase domain containing 2 (ABHD2) has been confirmed by our previous study to be upregulated in HepG2.2.15 cells but downregulated by lamivudine. These observations suggested that ABHD2 was important for HBV propagation and could be a target of novel anti-HBV drugs. To assess the importance of ABHD2 to the HBV infection process, antisense oligonucleotides (ASODNs) were used to downregulate ABHD2 expression in HepG2.2.15 cells. From 5 ASODNS candidates tested, AB3 significantly downregulated ABHD2 mRNA and protein expression levels. Further, AB3 significantly reduced HBV DNA, hepatitis B surface antigen, and hepatitis B "e" antigen protein expression levels in cell medium without affecting cell viability. These results suggest that downregulation of ABHD2 using ASODNs blocked HBV replication and expression without affecting host cell physiology. Further, data demonstrated an essential role of ABHD2 in HBV propagation, suggesting it can serve as a novel target for anti-HBV drug development.