Low Dynamic State of Viral Competition in a Chronic Avian Hepadnavirus Infection
Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: The dynamic state of infection of 11 ducks with the duck hepatitis B virus was investigated. Chronic infections were established in newly hatched ducklings by inoculation with a mixture of wild-type virus and a mutant virus with a partial replication defect. As expected, the wild-type virus was rapidly enriched in the virus population during the spread of infection. Enrichment thereafter was correlated with normal growth of the liver, with the average mutant-to-wild-type ratio stabilizing for at least 2 months beyond the time at which the liver mass stabilized. Using experimentally determined growth rates for the mutant and wild-type viruses, we estimated that after the spread of infection, competition between the two virus strains was limited by the amount of replication required to infect new hepatocytes in the growing livers. The results suggest that, in a chronically infected liver, the selection of variants with a replication rate advantage is inefficient and that the emergence of such variants would depend on induced liver cell turnover, such as that occurring during chronic hepatitis.
Source: Journal of Virology
Authors: Yong-Yuan Zhang, Jesse Summers
Institution: University of New Mexico
Language: English
Topic: Hepatitis B Virus Studies
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2168129438