Serum HBV DNA plus RNA shows superiority in reflecting the activity of intrahepatic cccDNA in treatment-na ïve HBV-infected individuals

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major pathogenic factor leading to chronic hepatitis B (CHB), cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) [1]. According to the reports of WHO, more than 2 billion people have been infected with HBV and approximately 10% of them finally become chronic HBV infection [2]. Almost 650,000 people die of liver failure, cirrhosis and HCC caused by HBV infection annually [3]. The key step within HBV life cycle is the formation of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), which could serve as the template to produce HBV genome and viral proteins [4 –6].

Source: Journal of Clinical Virology - January 5, 2018 Category: Virology Authors: Hongxin Huang, Jie Wang, Weijie Li, Ran Chen, Xiangmei Chen, Fengmin Zhang, Dongping Xu, Fengmin Lu Source Type: research