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About the Authors:
Fang Guo
Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Qiong Zhao
Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Muhammad Sheraz
Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Visualization
Affiliation: Microbiology and Immunology graduate program, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4780-6581
Junjun Cheng
Roles Data curation
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Yonghe Qi
Roles Data curation
Affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China
Qing Su
Roles Data curation
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Andrea Cuconati
Roles Data curation, Investigation, Resources, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: Arbutus Biopharma Inc., Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5123-0381
Lai Wei
Roles Resources
Affiliation: Hepatology Institute, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing, China
Yanming Du
Roles Data curation, Resources, Validation
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4665-8348
Wenhui Li
Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing - review & editing
Affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China
Jinhong Chang
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected] (JTG); [email protected] (JC)
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Ju-Tao Guo
Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
* E-mail: [email protected] (JTG); [email protected] (JC)
Affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5335-2788Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core protein assembles viral pre-genomic (pg) RNA and DNA polymerase into nucleocapsids for reverse transcriptional DNA replication to take place. Several chemotypes of small molecules, including heteroaryldihydropyrimidines (HAPs) and sulfamoylbenzamides (SBAs), have been discovered to allosterically modulate core protein structure and consequentially alter the kinetics and pathway of core protein assembly, resulting in formation of irregularly-shaped core protein aggregates or “empty” capsids devoid of pre-genomic RNA and viral DNA polymerase. Interestingly, in addition to inhibiting...