Contents
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): (Source: Current Opinion in Virology)
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Editorial overview: Antiviral strategies: Virological and immunological basis for HBV cure
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Stephan Urban, Antonio Bertoletti (Source: Current Opinion in Virology)
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Overcoming immune tolerance in chronic hepatitis B by therapeutic vaccination
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Claudia Dembek, Ulrike Protzer, Michael RoggendorfThe currently used nucleoside analogs (i.e. entecavir and tenofovir) with high barrier-to-resistance efficiently suppress viral replication, limit inflammation and reduce the sequelae of chronic hepatitis B, but cannot cure the disease and thus have to be applied long-term. Therapeutic vaccination as an approach to cure chronic hepatitis B has shown promising pre-clinical results, nevertheless the proof of its efficacy in clinical trials is still missing. This may be partially due to subopti...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Modulators of innate immunity as novel therapeutics for treatment of chronic hepatitis B
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Aleksei Suslov, Stefan Wieland, Stephan MenneThe first line defense mechanisms against viral infection are mediated by the innate immune system. Viral components are detected by infected cells and/or innate immune cells that express different sensory receptors. They in turn mediate induction of direct antiviral mechanisms and further modulation of innate and adaptive immune responses. For evading the innate system, most viruses have evolved efficient mechanisms to block sensing and/or antiviral functions of the innate response. Interestingl...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Control of viral transcripts as a concept for future HBV therapies
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Christoph SeegerChronic hepatitis B virus infections affect over 250 million people world-wide, and, at present, are not curable. Of those, over 800 000 are expected to die yearly from complications including cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A viral episomal DNA intermediate, covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) can persist in nuclei of infected hepatocytes and trigger production of infectious virus. Current standard of care treatments against chronic HBV infections primarily rely on nucleoside analogs (NA) that...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Impact of integrated viral DNA on the goal to clear hepatitis B surface antigen with different therapeutic strategies
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Magnus Lindh, Gustaf E Rydell, Simon B LarssonA hallmark of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the serum of patients. Sustained loss of HBV DNA and HBsAg from the blood are main goals for treatment, and considered as functional cure. It is rarely achieved with long-term nucleoside analogue treatment though, both because cccDNA, the template for viral replication, is not completely cleared, and probably also because hepatocytes with HBV DNA integrated into their chromosomes persist and...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Role of HBx in hepatitis B virus persistence and its therapeutic implications
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Betty L Slagle, Michael J BouchardChronic hepatitis B virus infection is a significant risk factor for cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The HBx protein is required for virus replication, but the lack of robust infection models has hindered our understanding of HBx functions that could be targeted for antiviral purposes. We briefly review three properties of HBx: its binding to DDB1 and its regulation of cell survival and metabolism, to illustrate how a single viral protein can have multiple effects in a cell. We propose that differen...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Why, who and when to start treatment for chronic hepatitis B infection
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Grace E Dolman, Apostolos Koffas, William S Mason, Patrick TF KennedyChronic hepatitis B remains a major global health challenge due to morbidity and mortality from hepatocellular carcinoma and complications of liver cirrhosis. Current treatment regimens are non-curative and, once initiated, treatment is of indefinite duration for the majority. The decision to initiate treatment decisions is based on risk stratification.Advances in our understanding of the natural history of chronic hepatitis B have led to a paradigm shift in recommendation...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Viral envelope-specific antibodies in chronic hepatitis B virus infection
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Davide Corti, Fabio Benigni, Daniel ShouvalWhile the cellular immune response associated with acute and chronic HBV infection has been thoroughly studied, the B cell response in chronic hepatitis B and the role of antibodies raised against the HBV envelope antigens in controlling and prevention of infection requires further investigation. The detection of anti-HBs antibodies is considered as one of the biomarkers for functional cure of chronic hepatitis B virus infection, as well as for protective immunity. Indeed, vaccine-induced neutraliz...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Perspectives and limitations for nucleo(t)side analogs in future HBV therapies
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Massimo Levrero, Miroslava Subic, Francois Villeret, Fabien ZoulimThe latest generation of nucleo(t)side analogs (NAs) provide robust virus suppression with high barrier to resistance. Long term NAs treatment is associated with a partial restoration in HBV-specific T-cell functions, regression of fibrosis, no disease progression and a reduction of HCC risk but rarely lead to cure and life-long treatments is often required. New insights into the hepatitis B viral life cycle and the host immune response have expanded the potential targets for...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Strategies to overcome HBV-specific T cell exhaustion: checkpoint inhibitors and metabolic re-programming
Publication date: June 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 30Author(s): Paola Fisicaro, Carolina Boni, Valeria Barili, Diletta Laccabue, Carlo FerrariHBV-specific T cells play a key role in antiviral protection and failure to control HBV is associated with severely dysfunctional T cell responses. Therefore, functional T cell reconstitution represents a potential way to treat chronically infected patients. The growing understanding of the dysregulated transcriptional/epigenetic and metabolic programs underlying T cell exhaustion allows to envisage functional T cell reconstitution strategies based on the combined...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 10, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
The need for improved vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease
Publication date: April 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 29Author(s): Teresa de los Santos, Fayna Diaz-San Segundo, Luis L RodriguezFoot-and-mouth disease (FMD) continues to be the viral disease posing the greatest economic threat to agriculture. An unusually fast replication rate, extreme transmissibility, broad species tropism and antigenic diversity have made its etiologic agent, FMD virus, a difficult pathogen to defeat. Over the last 70 years, use of an inactivated virus vaccine has played a key role in disease control and eradication was possible in certain regions of the world. However, a rapidly chan...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 5, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Current status of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome vaccine development
Publication date: April 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 29Author(s): Lisa M Reece, David WC Beasley, Gregg N Milligan, Vanessa V Sarathy, Alan DT BarrettSevere Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) is a new emerging tick-borne disease caused by the phlebovirus, SFTS virus (SFTSV). The virus was discovered in central China in 2009 and has since been identified in both Japan and South Korea. Significant progress has been made on the molecular biology of the virus, and this has been used to develop diagnostic assays and reagents. Less progress has been made on the epidemiology, maintenance and transmissi...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 5, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Recent advances in veterinary applications of structural vaccinology
Publication date: April 2018Source: Current Opinion in Virology, Volume 29Author(s): Bryan Charleston, Simon P GrahamThe deployment of effective veterinary vaccines has had a major impact on improving food security and consequently human health. Effective vaccines were essential for the global eradication of Rinderpest and the control and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease in some regions of the world. Effective vaccines also underpin the development of modern intensive food production systems such as poultry and aquaculture. However, for some high consequence diseases there are still significant challenges to develop e...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 5, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
Fundamental challenges to the development of a preventive HIV vaccine
This article examines fundamental challenges to the development of a preventive HIV vaccine. They include the initially erroneous but powerful perception of the natural history of HIV disease, as an acute rather than a chronic illness even in the absence of therapy, the lack of appreciation of the quasispecies biology of HIV and the abandonment of principles of immunology theory caused by the allure of technological prowess. In addition two other important aspects are discussed: vaccines directed against transmitted/founder viruses (T/F) and the reconsideration of HIV inactivation as a viable means to obtain a preventive H...
Source: Current Opinion in Virology - July 5, 2018 Category: Virology Source Type: research
