Hepatitis B virus (HBV) persistence may be due to impaired HBV-specific immune responses being unable to eliminate efficiently or cure infected hepatocytes. The immune mechanisms that lead to HBV persistence have not been completely identified, and no appropriate animal model is available for such studies. Therefore, we established a chronic HBV infection model in a mouse strain with human leuk...

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is a multifunctional protein that can interfere with the induction of an immune response. It has been reported that the HCV core protein inhibits HBV replication in vitro. In this study, we test the effect of the HCV core gene on the priming of the immune response to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and on the replication of HBV in vivo. Our results s...

successful clearance of hepatitis b virus (hbv) is a promising event in which host's immune system will attempt to get rid of the virus. the immunological events of hbsag seroclearance have attracted great attention in both natural history investigations and therapeutic trials. recent genome-wide association studies (gwas) has confirmed polymorphisms in the human leukocyte antigen (hla)-dp locu...

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 ...

BACKGROUND The hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection could activate the immune system and induce extensive inflammatory response. As the most important inflammatory factor, interleukins are critical for anti-viral immunity. Here we investigated whether interleukin-34 (IL-34) play a role in HBV infection. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, we first found that both serum IL-34 and IL-34 ...

Persistent hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection results in chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). An efficient control of virus infections requires the coordinated actions of both innate and adaptive immune responses. In order to define the role of innate immunity effectors against HBV, viral clearance was studied in a panel of immunodeficient mouse strains by the ...

Various findings concerning the clinical significance of quantitative changes in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) during the acute and chronic phase of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection have been reported. In addition to being a biomarker of HBV-replication activity, it has been reported that HBsAg could contribute to the immunopathogenesis of HBV persistent infection. Moreover, HBsAg could ...

Cellular immune responses mediated by CD8+ cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) and CD4+ helper T-lymphocytes (HTL) are needed to effectively control and clear many viral pathogens, including HIV-1. Thus, vaccines for HIV-1 capable of inducing CTL and HTL responses are now the focus of multiple academic and industry-based research and development programs. The use of defined, minimal CTL and HTL epito...

The successful control of HBV infection requires an efficient expansion of distinct elements of the adaptive immune system (B cells, helper and cytotoxic T cells) that, due to the hepatotropic nature of HBV, need to operate in the liver parenchyma. In this respect, we will discuss broad features of HBV immunity in patients with resolved or chronic HBV infection and analyze how the liver environ...

background: due to their similar routes of transmission, human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and hepatitis b virus (hbv) co-infection occurs considerably. hbv infection progresses more rapidly in hiv-infected patients. therefore, hbv vaccination of all non-immune hiv infected patients is recommended. on the other hand, hiv-infected subjects have suboptimal responses to hbv vaccine. in this study...