Author information
1Liver Diseases Branch, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, MD., USA.
2Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, PA., USA.
3National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Anchorage, AK., USA.
4Dept of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology and German Center for Infection Diseases (DZIF), Univ Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
5Hepatology Dept, Lyon Univ & CRCL, INSERM U1052, Lyon, France.
6Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Doherty Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
7Dept of Medicine, Philadelphia VAMC & University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA., USA.
8Div of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI., USA.
Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a significant global pathogen, infecting more than 240 million people worldwide. While treatment for HBV has improved, HBV patients often require life-long therapies and cure is still a challenging goal. Recent advances in technologies and pharmaceutical sciences have heralded a new horizon of innovative therapeutic approaches that are bringing us closer to the possibility of a functional cure of chronic HBV infection. In this article, we review the current state of science in HBV therapy and highlight new and exciting therapeutic strategies spurred by recent scientific advances. Some of these therapies have already entered into clinical phase and we will likely see more of them moving along the development pipeline. With a growing interest in and effort to developing more effective therapies for HBV, the challenging goal of a cure may be well within reach in the near future.