Methods of preventing viral replication (U.S. Patent Number 5,610,050)

The invention relates to methods and compositions for inhibition of viral replication. In particular, termination of replication of hepatitis B virus is achieved by introducing into a target cell an antisense oligonucleotide having a sequence substantially complementary to an mRNA which is in turn complementary to a portion of the minus strand of a hepatitis viral genome, which portion encoding solely part or all of the terminal protein region of the viral polymerase.