New facet of CARs: HBV-specific CARs as inhibitors of virus morphogenesis and release

Although safe and effective vaccines against HBV (hepatitis B virus) are available, there are worldwide more than 2 billion people who had an HBV infection and about 250 million people suffering from chronic HBV infection. Chronic HBV infection is a major cause for liver diseases such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is estimated that about 800 000–1 000 000 people die each year due to the consequences of chronic HBV infection.1 Moreover, in almost all HBV-associated HCCs integrated HBV-DNA is found. Therapy options at present are limited and based on nucleoside/nucleotide analogues and interferon alpha. Since persistence of HBV infection frequently can be attributed to an insufficient cellular immune response approaches to rescue host immune response may help to eliminate infected cells and to suppress virus replication. A recent development are HBV-specific CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) human T-cells that are intended to recognise and eliminate HBV positive...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Open access, Gut Commentary Source Type: research