THE SELF-CATALYTIC RNA MOTIFS OF THE HEPA TITIS-DELTA VIRUS

The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is responsible for a common form of vi ral hepatitis. This virus is unique among human pathogens and shares s everal characteristics with plant viroids, such as their DNA-independe nt rolling circle replication mechanism and a highly followed small ci rcular RNA genome. The present review will focus on the structures, th e molecular mechanism and the applications of the delta ribozyme which is the self-catalytic motif found in HDV. This motif performs the cis cleavage of the multimeric strands in monomers during HDV replication . The delta ribozyme may also be modified so cleavage of a target RNA is achieved in trans. This last property might be helpful in the devel opment of therapeutic applications aimed at inhibiting replication of viral RNA or translation of target mRNA.