Endogenous Polymerase Assay for the Analysis of Hepatitis B Virus in Transgenic Mice

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a human pathogen that can cause severe liver diseases. This virus has a high liver tropism and is often found in large quantities in the sera of patients with HBV. HBV is enveloped and has three related envelope proteins. These envelope proteins are collectively called the surface antigens. The virus also contains a core particle inside the envelope. This core particle packages the viral genomic DNA, which is a circular, partially double-stranded DNA molecule slightly larger than 3 kb. The major protein constituent of the core particle is the core protein. The core protein mRNA, also known as the pregenomic RNA (pgRNA), is larger than the genome size, with a terminal redundancy of about 200 nucleotides. In addition to the core protein, this RNA also codes for the viral DNA polymerase, which is also a reverse transcriptase ().