Mechanism of Hepatitis B Virus Infection and Antiviral Development
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 2089
Special Issue Editors
Interests: hepatitis virus; human polyoma virus; molecular mechanism of viral carcinogenesis; antiviral drug development
Interests: development of replication-incompetent adenovirus vectors; genome editing using viral vectors; viral vectors expressing multiplex guide RNAs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a leading cause of liver diseases including hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and chronic infection with this virus is a well-known threat to global health. HBV is the only virus of the Hepadnaviridae family that infects human hepatocytes. It is an enveloped virus with a partial double-stranded circular DNA genome at 3.2 kbp, which is extremely small compared to other DNA viruses. The unique arrangement of the open reading frame, the replication strategy of reverse transcription of the RNA intermediate to generate the DNA genome, and the production of a large number of non-infectious HBs particles in addition to the infectious particles are also characteristic of this virus.
Current therapies include nucleos(t)ide analogs (NUCs), which act directly on viral replication, and immunomodulators such as interferon therapy. NUC therapy suppresses viral replication and improves liver histology. However, long-term NUC administration rarely results in functional cure (HBs seroclearance) of chronic hepatitis, and virologic relapse almost often occurs after treatment is discontinued. Development of antiviral compounds with new mechanisms of action as well as new treatment strategies such as gene therapy are being actively pursued to achieve the goal of functional cure and to improve the remission rate after treatment cessation.
This Special Issue of IJMS is seeking articles (original research articles and comprehensive reviews) that provide new insights into the molecular aspects of regulatory mechanisms of HBV lifecycle and drug discovery research against HBV.
Prof. Dr. Tetsuro Suzuki
Prof. Dr. Izumu Saito
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- hepatitis B virus
- virus infection
- virus replication
- antiviral
- drug development
- gene therapy
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