Interferon-stimulated Genes and Their Role in Controlling Hepatitis E Virus

textabstractIFN-α and ribavirin were used to treat chronic HEV patients. However, failures of ribavirin treatment were observed and thereby new antiviral treatments are urgently required. The IFN pathway plays an important role in defending viral infection through the expression of ISGs, but little is known about the relation between HEV infection and IFN/ISG pathway. In this thesis, we aimed to investigate anti-HEV activities of IFN pathway and its mechanism-of-action. We first studied the anti-HEV potential of IFNs against HEV in cell culture models. Next, we mainly focused on the anti-HEV ability of many important ISGs and the mechanism-of-action of some key anti-HEV ISGs. Meanwhile, some novel mechanisms that regulate ISG transcription and their role in controlling HEV were also investigated