Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Jan 20;9(1):18.
doi: 10.3390/v9010018.

Control of Hepatitis B Virus by Cytokines

Yuchen Xia  1 , Ulrike Protzer  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Control of Hepatitis B Virus by Cytokines

Yuchen Xia et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major public health problem worldwide with more than 240 million individuals chronically infected. Current treatments can control HBV replication to a large extent, but cannot eliminate HBV infection. Cytokines have been shown to control HBV replication and contribute to HBV cure in different models. Cytokines play an important role in limiting acute HBV infection in patients and mediate a non-cytolytic clearance of the virus. In this review, we summarize the effects of cytokines and cytokine-induced cellular signaling pathways on different steps of the HBV life cycle, and discuss possible strategies that may contribute to the eradication of HBV through innate immune activation.

Keywords: cccDNA; cytokine; hepatitis B virus (HBV); interferon; interferon-induced gene (ISG); therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Trepo C., Chan H.L., Lok A. Hepatitis B virus infection. Lancet. 2014;384:2053–2063. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60220-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Liang T.J., Block T.M., McMahon B.J., Ghany M.G., Urban S., Guo J.T., Locarnini S., Zoulim F., Chang K.M., Lok A.S. Present and future therapies of hepatitis B: From discovery to cure. Hepatology. 2015;62:1893–1908. doi: 10.1002/hep.28025. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Penna A., Artini M., Cavalli A., Levrero M., Bertoletti A., Pilli M., Chisari F.V., Rehermann B., Del Prete G., Fiaccadori F., et al. Long-lasting memory T cell responses following self-limited acute hepatitis B. J. Clin. Investig. 1996;98:1185–1194. doi: 10.1172/JCI118902. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rehermann B., Fowler P., Sidney J., Person J., Redeker A., Brown M., Moss B., Sette A., Chisari F.V. The cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to multiple hepatitis B virus polymerase epitopes during and after acute viral hepatitis. J. Exp. Med. 1995;181:1047–1058. doi: 10.1084/jem.181.3.1047. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Protzer U., Maini M.K., Knolle P.A. Living in the liver: hepatic infections. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2012;12:201–213. doi: 10.1038/nri3169. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types