Comparison of properties of woodchuck hepatitis virus and human hepatitis B virus endogenous DNA polymerases

The principal properties of the DNA polymerases of woodchuck hepatitis virus and human hepatitis B virus were compared. The enzymes of both viruses exhibited optimal activities in the same range of pH, ionic strength, and MgCl2 concentration. Like human hepatitis B virus DNA polymerase, the woodchuck hepatitis virus DNA polymerase was strongly inhibited by phosphonoformic acid but not by phosphonoacetic acid and aphidicolin. Similar inhibition patterns for both enzymes were observed with arabinofuranosyl nucleotides (9-beta-D-arabinofuranosyladenine-5'-triphosphate, 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine-5'-triphosphate, 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylthymine-5'-triphosphate) and dideoxythymidine triphosphate, whereas no effect was obtained with corresponding nucleosides. The therapeutic significance of these results and the relevance of the woodchuck as an experimental animal model for the study of human hepatitis B virus infections are discussed.