1Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – 560 012, Karnataka (India)
2Department of Nanotechnology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar – 190 006, Jammu & Kashmir (India)
The Smc5/6 protein complex inhibits the replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) by an unknown mechanism. HBx, the regulatory protein of HBV, binds Smc5/6, promotes its ubiquitination by recruiting it to DDB1-CRL4 E3 ubiquitin ligase and mediates proteasomal degradation. In absence of HBx, Smc5/6 complex binds to cccDNA of HBV and inhibits transcription and replication of HBV. Thus Smc5/6 complex acts antagonistically to HBV infection. This could aid in the development of potential therapeutics against HBV infection. In this minireview, the role of Smc5/6 in replication and its interaction with HBx protein of HBV is discussed.
HBV, Smc5/6 complex, DDB1, HBx, replication
