Phyo WW, Soh AYS, Lim SG, Lee GH. Search for a cure for chronic hepatitis B infection: How close are we? World J Hepatol 2015; 7(9): 1272-1281 [PMID: 26019743 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i9.1272]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Guan Huei Lee, Consultant, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medicine Cluster, National University Hospital of Singapore, 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block, Level 10, Singapore 119228, Singapore. guan_huei_lee@nuhs.edu.sg
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. May 28, 2015; 7(9): 1272-1281 Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i9.1272
Search for a cure for chronic hepatitis B infection: How close are we?
Wah Wah Phyo, Alex Yu Sen Soh, Seng Gee Lim, Guan Huei Lee
Wah Wah Phyo, Alex Yu Sen Soh, Seng Gee Lim, Guan Huei Lee, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medicine Cluster, National University Hospital of Singapore, Singapore 119228, Singapore
Author contributions: Phyo WW, Soh AYS, Lim SG and Lee GH wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest: None of the authors of this review study has any competing financial or other interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Guan Huei Lee, Consultant, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medicine Cluster, National University Hospital of Singapore, 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block, Level 10, Singapore 119228, Singapore. guan_huei_lee@nuhs.edu.sg
Telephone: +65-67795555 Fax: +65-67751518
Received: August 28, 2014 Peer-review started: August 30, 2014 First decision: November 27, 2014 Revised: December 19, 2014 Accepted: February 10, 2015 Article in press: February 12, 2015 Published online: May 28, 2015 Processing time: 265 Days and 14.4 Hours
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) remains a significant unmet medical need, with 240 million chronically infected persons worldwide. It can be controlled effectively with either nucleoside/nucleotide-based or interferon-based therapies. However, most patients receiving these therapies will relapse after treatment withdrawal. During recent years, the advances in molecular biology and immunology have enabled a better understanding of the viral-host interaction and inspired new treatment approaches to achieve either elimination of the virus from the liver or durable immune control of the infection. This review aims to provide a brief overview on the potential new therapies that may overcome the challenge of persistent CHB infection in the near future.
Core tip: Current hepatitis B treatments can only control the disease, but they rarely lead to substantial rates of hepatitis B surface antigen loss and seroconversion. Several new therapeutic approaches are being developed so as to attain the elusive goal of successful functional cure of chronic hepatitis B infection.
