miR146a impairs the IFN-induced anti-HBV immune response by downregulating STAT1 in hepatocytes.

Background & Aims: Previous studies have shown that hepatitis B virus (HBV) interferes with host antiviral immunity via multiple pathways. In clinical practice, interferon resistance is a serious issue for treatment of HBV infection. Now, miRNAs have been reported to be widely involved in antiviral immunity and have become a novel tool to study virus-host interaction.

[The elp3 subunit of human elongator complex ignificantly complemented the growth defects of yeast elp3delta strain].

The human elongator complex was found to be very similar to the yeast Elongator both in composition and its interaction with RNA polymerase II. But little is known about its functions in vivo. In this study, we analyzed the functions of the help3, the catalytic subunit of human Elongator, using a yeast complementation system.