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World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2014; 20(33): 11671-11683
Published online Sep 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i33.11671
Bacteriophages and their applications in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B virus infection
Babak Bakhshinejad, Majid Sadeghizadeh
Babak Bakhshinejad, Majid Sadeghizadeh, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran
Author contributions: Bakhshinejad B performed literature mining and wrote the manuscript; Sadeghizadeh M critically revised the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Majid Sadeghizadeh, Professor, Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Al-e-Ahmad, Tehran 14115-111, Iran. sadeghma@modares.ac.ir
Telephone: +98-21-82884409 Fax: +98-21-82884484
Received: October 29, 2013
Revised: February 11, 2014
Accepted: April 15, 2014
Published online: September 7, 2014
Processing time: 313 Days and 10 Hours
Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global health challenge leading to serious disorders such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, there exist various diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for HBV infection. However, prevalence and hazardous effects of chronic viral infection heighten the need to develop novel methodologies for the detection and treatment of this infection. Bacteriophages, viruses that specifically infect bacterial cells, with a long-established tradition in molecular biology and biotechnology have recently been introduced as novel tools for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HBV infection. Bacteriophages, due to tremendous genetic flexibility, represent potential to undergo a huge variety of surface modifications. This property has been the rationale behind introduction of phage display concept. This powerful approach, together with combinatorial chemistry, has shaped the concept of phage display libraries with diverse applications for the detection and therapy of HBV infection. This review aims to offer an insightful overview of the potential of bacteriophages in the development of helpful prophylactic (vaccine design), diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for HBV infection thereby providing new perspectives to the growing field of bacteriophage researches directing towards HBV infection.

Keywords: Bacteriophage; Hepatitis B virus; Phage display; Phage library; Biopanning; Diagnosis; Treatment; Vaccine development

Core tip: Gaining insight into the role played by bacteriophages, viruses with prokaryotic hosts, in the development of helpful diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is of paramount importance. Natural presence of bacteriophages in the human body, as a major constituent of the gut flora, creates new opportunities in directing the developed approaches towards HBV infection. Undoubtedly, exploitation of this hidden potential of bacteriophages paves the way for introduction of novel methodologies for the detection and therapy of prevalent infection of HBV.