Hepatitis B Virus PreS2 Activates Human Acyl Protein Thioesterase 1 Promoter

Objective: To investigate the trans-regulative effect of hepatitis B virus(HBV) preS2 on the promoter of human acyl protein thioesterase 1(APT1) gene.Methods: The promoter sequence of human APT1 gene was identified applying the software of bioinformatics. The APT1 promoter and HBV preS2 gene were amplified with PCR and cloned into pGL3 and pcDNA3.1(-) plasmids to construct the luciferase reporter gene plasmid of human APT1 gene promoter pGL3-APT1 and the preS2 eukaryotic expression plasmid pcDNA3.1(-)-preS2, respectively.The effect of the preS2 on the human APT1 gene promoter was examined by cotransfecting hepatocellular carcinoma cell Hep G2 with p GL3-APT1 and pcDNA3.1(-)-preS2 and measuring luciferase activities of the HepG2 cells. The statistical data were analyzed with independent-samples t test. Results: Both plasmids of p GL3-APT1 and pcDNA3.1(-)-preS2 were confirmed by DNA sequencing to be accurately constructed as design. The luciferase activity of the pGL3-APT1 was 1.2 times( P < 0.01) that of the positive control plasmid pGL3-Control. And the luciferase activity of the HepG2 cells cotransfected with pcDNA3.1(-)-preS2 and p GL3-APT1 was 2.6 times( P < 0.01) that of the Hep G2 cells cotransfected with the plasmid without preS2 gene pcDNA3.1(-) and pGL3-APT1. Conclusion: The human APT1 promoter cloned in the study has high promoter activity; HBV preS2 activates human APT1 promoter.