1A), suggesting that HBV+ mice were systemically immunotolerant to HBV. Similar to infected human hepatocytes and liver tissues, IFN-α/β mRNA levels were lower in HBV+ than in HBV− hepatocytes (Fig. 1B), while immunosuppressive check details cytokines significantly increased (Fig. 1C). These results collectively indicate that HBV infection induces hepatocyte-intrinsic innate immunotolerance. Evaluating adaptive immunity generated in HBV+ mice, we found that the percentage and absolute number of hepatic CD8+ T cell (Fig. 1D) was reduced, and moreover, inhibitory PD-1 expression on hepatic CD8+ T cells was almost 3-fold higher than in HBV− mice (Fig. 1E). To observe recall responses and to determine if HBV

persistence was established in HBV+ mice, pAAV/HBV1.2 plasmid was readministered. Two weeks later, HBV− mice eliminated HBV, but HBV+ mice remained HBV persistent (data not shown). Importantly, the percentage and absolute number of hepatic HBc-specific CD8+ T cells (detected by HBcAg93-100 pentamer staining) (Fig. 1F) as well as the percentage of hepatic IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cells (Fig. 1G) decreased significantly Raf inhibitor drugs in HBV+ mice, indicating that HBV persistence impaired CD8+ T-cell responses. We also detected the specific response to LCMV infection by LCMV gp33 administration. Our data showed that the percentages of LCMV gp33+ CD8+ T cells were increased in both HBV− and HBV+ mice with no significant

differences (Fig. 1H). These results suggest that HBV-induced systemic immunotolerance is HBV-specific. All the results raised the possibility that impairing HBV-induced hepatocyte-intrinsic immune responses leads to systemic adaptive immunotolerance. To test whether intrinsic innate immunotolerance can be reversed in vivo, we constructed a dually functional vector containing an immunostimulatory ssRNA and an HBx-gene-silencing shRNA. We designed four different sequences encoding ssRNAs and HBx-shRNA, and inserted medchemexpress them

into the shRNA pSIREN expression vector. Transfection with ssRNA1- and ssRNA4-containing vectors significantly enhanced IFN-α production in supernatants, while all four shRNA vectors effectively silenced HBx expression at both the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels (Supporting Fig. 3A,B). We selected ssRNA4 and HBx-shRNA3 to construct the dual-function vector (Supporting Fig. 3C). The dual-function (dual), single immunostimulatory RNA (ssRNA), single HBx-shRNA (shRNA), or pSIREN (empty control) vectors were separately transfected into HBV-persistent HepG2.2.15 cells. Although shRNA and dual vectors significantly reduced HBx expression at both the mRNA and protein levels, the dual vector more effectively reduced HBV DNA replication and HBsAg/HBeAg production (Supporting Fig. 4A). Furthermore, the dual vector induced higher IFN-α, IFN-β, ISG15, and MxA production (Supporting Fig. 4B-D) as well as lower TGF-β and IL-10 (Supporting Fig. 4B).