Impairment of the retinoic acid-inducible gene-I-IFN-β signaling pathway in chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) virus infection is caused by compromised host immunity, but the precise underlying mechanism remains unclear. Retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) triggers antiviral immunity by inducing interferon-β (IFN-β) production following viral infection. To investigate the role of the RIG-I-IFN-β signaling pathway in monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) during CHB infection, moDCs were generated by stimulating CD14+ monocytes in vitro. MoDCs from patients with CHB, acute hepatitis B (AHB) and healthy controls (HCs) were challenged with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and the levels of RIG-I, IFN-β promoter stimulator 1 (IPS-1) and IFN-β in the stimulated moDCs were determined. Following 16 h of VSV stimulation, RIG-I expression was reduced by 50% in moDCs from CHB patients and by 70% in moDCs from AHB patients relative to HC moDCs, concomitant with a 20% decrease in IFN-β expression in CHB patients relative to AHB patients and HCs. Additionally, a significant correlation between the RIG-I/IPS-1 ratio and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was observed. To further investigate the function of RIG-I in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, HepG2 or HepG2.2.15 (HBV-transformed) cell lines were challenged with VSV following RIG-1 transfection. IFN-β induction was suppressed in HepG2.2.15 cells, but was restored following RIG-I transfection. Taken together, these data indicate that compromised moDC function in CHB patients is attributable to an impaired RIG-I-IFN-β signaling pathway, which results in compromised host viral clearance and HBV persistence in a susceptible population.