Author information
Collaborators (32)
1 Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia.
2 Department of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
3 Hepatitis B Foundation, Doylestown, PA, USA.
4 I Medical Clinic, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel partner site, Hamburg, Germany.
5 Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Canada.
6 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
7 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, USA.
8 Hepatitis Virus Diversity Research Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
9 CRC "A. M. and A. Migliavacca" Center for the Study of Liver Disease, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
10 Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, University of Toronto, Canada.
11 Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France; INSERM, U1052, Lyon, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; Department of Internal Medicine - DMISM, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; CLNS@SAPIENZA, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Rome, Italy.
12 National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China; Tsinghua Institute of Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
13 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
14 Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
15 Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
16 Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia.
17 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, MI, USA.
18 Department of Medicine II, Medical Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
19 Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France. Electronic address: fabien.zoulim@inserm.fr.
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health challenge on the same scale as tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria. The International Coalition to Eliminate HBV (ICE-HBV) is a coalition of experts dedicated to accelerating the discovery of a cure for chronic hepatitis B. Following extensive consultation with more than 50 scientists from across the globe, as well as key stakeholders including people affected by HBV, we have identified gaps in our current knowledge and new strategies and tools that are required to achieve HBV cure. We believe that research must focus on the discovery of interventional strategies that will permanently reduce the number of productively infected cells or permanently silence the covalently closed circular DNA in those cells, and that will stimulate HBV-specific host immune responses which mimic spontaneous resolution of HBV infection. There is also a pressing need for the establishment of repositories of standardised HBV reagents and protocols that can be accessed by all HBV researchers throughout the world. The HBV cure research agenda outlined in this position paper will contribute markedly to the goal of eliminating HBV infection worldwide.