Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B virus (CHB) is managed effectively with either nucleoside/nucleotide-based
or interferon-based therapies. However, most patients receiving these therapies do
not establish long-term, durable control of infection after treatment withdrawal.
In particular, rates of hepatitis B surface-antigen loss and seroconversion to antisurface-antigen
antibody are very low. Thus, novel therapies and treatment modalities are necessary
to achieve either elimination of the virus from the liver or durable immune control
of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the absence of chronic therapy (“functional
cure”). Here the authors review new targets and approaches for treating CHB. These
approaches can be divided into two broad categories—those targeting the virus or host
factors required by the virus and those targeting the innate or adaptive immune systems.
Unfortunately, although a variety of promising strategies have been identified and
several new approaches have achieved preclinical validation, relatively few novel
drug candidates are in active clinical studies to treat CHB. Thus, functional cure
of CHB infection remains an important therapeutic challenge.
Keywords
hepatitis B virus (HBV) - antiviral therapy - immunotherapy - chronic hepatitis B
- treatment
