Epigenetic Regulation of cccDNA Functions and HBV Replication
A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Viruses".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 22389
Special Issue Editors
Interests: chromatin; transcription and co-transcriptional events regulation; hepatitis B virus
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite the existence of a prophylactic vaccine, chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a global health problem, with 257 million people living with HBV and at risk of developing severe liver diseases. The suppression of HBV replication by current standard-of-care antiviral therapies (nucleos(t)ide analogs, NUCs) has a positive impact on disease progression, but does not eliminate hepatocellular carcinoma risk in patients with advanced fibrosis and established cirrhosis. NUCs do not target the HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) nuclear replicative intermediate, responsible for viral persistence in infected hepatocytes. cccDNA acts as the unique template for pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) transcription, which is reverse transcribed to sustain viral genome replication. cccDNA is assembled into a stable, episomal, chromatinized structure in hepatocyte nuclei, where its activity is subjected to the epigenetic regulation by viral and host factors. cccDNA elimination is universally recognized as the ultimate goal for new emerging antiviral strategies.
In this Special Issue of Viruses, we explore the scientific gaps in knowledge and the technical challenges related to cccDNA detection, persistence, regulation, and therapeutic targeting.
The Special Issue will combine invited and proffered contributions on the following topics :
- cccDNA biogenesis;
- cccDNA chromatin structure;
- cccDNA transcriptional and co-transcriptional regulation;
- Strategies to target cccDNA for cure;
- Techniques to detect and quantify cccDNA in cells, animal models, and patients samples;
- Techniques to assess cccDNA chromatin status and activity in cells, animal models, and patient samples.
We strongly believe that uniting research and review papers on these topics will be of great interest for the wider scientific community involved in the effort of identifying new antiviral strategies capable of targeting and eliminating cccDNA from the nucleus of infected hepatocytes—the major challenge for the cure of chronic HBV infection.
Dr. Barbara Testoni
Prof. Dr. Massimo Levrero
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- hepatitis B virus
- cccDNA
- chromatin
- transcription
- epigenetics
- RNA regulation
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