Data for: Persistent hepatitis B virus and HIV coinfections in dually humanized mice engrafted with human liver and immune system

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB), caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV), remains a
major medical problem. HBV has a high propensity for progressing to
chronicity and can result in severe liver disease, including fibrosis,
cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. CHB patients frequently present
with viral coinfection, including HIV and hepatitis delta virus. About 10%
of chronic HIV carriers are also persistently infected with HBV which can
result in more exacerbated liver disease. Mechanistic studies of
HBV-induced immune responses and pathogenesis, which could be
significantly influenced by HIV infection, have been hampered by the
scarcity of immunocompetent animal models. Here, we demonstrate that
humanized mice dually engrafted with components of a human immune system
and a human liver supported HBV infection, which was partially controlled
by human immune cells, as evidenced by lower levels of serum viremia and
HBV replication intermediates in the liver. HBV infection resulted in
priming and expansion of human HLA-restricted CD8+ T cells, which acquired
an activated phenotype. Notably, our dually humanized mice support
persistent coinfections with HBV and HIV which opens opportunities for
analyzing immune dysregulation during HBV and HIV coinfection and
preclinical testing of novel immunotherapeutics.