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Intracellular expression of engineered RNase P ribozymes effectively blocks gene expression and replication of human cytomegalovirus

Program in Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Program in Comparative Biochemistry, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Reprint requests to: Fenyong Liu, Program in Infectious Diseases and Immunity, School of Public Health, 140 Warren Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; e-mail: liu_fy{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu; fax: (510) 643-9955.

A ribozyme (M1GS RNA) constructed from the catalytic RNA subunit of RNase P from Escherichia coli was used to target the overlapping region of two human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) mRNAs, which encode for the viral essential protease (PR) and capsid assembly proteins (AP), respectively. The results show a reduction of >80% in the expression levels of PR and AP and an inhibition of ~2000-fold of viral growth in cells that stably expressed the ribozyme. In comparison, <10% reduction in the expression of the targets and viral growth was found in cells that either did not express the ribozyme or produced a "disabled" ribozyme carrying mutations that abolished its catalytic activity. Examination of replication of the virus in the ribozyme-expressing cells indicates that packaging of the viral genomic DNA into capsids is blocked, and suggests that the antiviral effects are because the ribozyme specifically inhibits the AP and PR expression and, consequently, abolishes viral capsid formation and growth. Our results show that RNase P ribozymes are highly effective in blocking HCMV growth by targeting the PR and AP mRNAs and demonstrate the feasibility to use these ribozymes in gene therapy for antiviral applications.

Keywords: Gene therapy; ribozyme; RNase P; cytomegalovirus; herpesvirus; gene targeting

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