Toward a new era of hepatitis B virus therapeutics: The pursuit of a functional cure.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, although preventable by vaccination, remains a global health problem and a major cause of chronic liver disease. Although current treatment strategies suppress viral replication very efficiently, the optimal endpoint of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance is rarely achieved. Moreover, the thorny problems of persistent chromatin-like covalently closed circular DNA and the presence of integrated HBV DNA in the host genome are ignored. Therefore, the scientific community has focused on developing innovative therapeutic approaches to achieve a functional cure of HBV, defined as undetectable HBV DNA and HBsAg loss over a limited treatment period. A deeper understanding of the HBV life cycle has led to the introduction of novel direct-acting antiviral

SUBMITTER: Tsounis EP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8173382 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature