Fig. 1

TVGV-HBx exerts a protective function against hydrodynamic HBV exposure in persistence-prone CBA/CaJ mice. a Naïve CBA/CaJ mice (N = 9) received hydrodynamic injection of 10 μg of different genotypes of the pAAV/HBV1.2 plasmid on day 0. Blood samples were collected at the indicated time points, and the serum HBs titers are shown. b Naïve CBA/CaJ mice (N = 4) received TVGV-HBx or TVGV-E7 or remained untreated on days 0, 7 and 14. Splenocytes were collected on day 21 and subjected to an IFN-γ ELISpot assay. c-f Naïve CBA/CaJ mice (N = 4 ~ 5) received TVGV-HBx or CpG-ODN immunization every 7 days for 3 consecutive weeks. Mice received HDI transfection with 10 μg of pAAV/HBV1.2 plasmid one week after the last immunization. Mouse serum was sampled on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 after HDI transfection. Liver samples were collected at the endpoint of the experiment. c Serum HBs titers were determined. d Serum HBV-DNA was detected. e Liver HBc was detected by western blotting. f Liver HBV-DNA was detected. Statistics: Student’s t-test. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; COI, cut-off index; LoD, limit of detection; SFCs, spot-forming cells