7 August 2023
Setting up HBV studies for human translational success
Hepatitis B is a serious and globally prevalent disease with 296 million people worldwide living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. Recent advances in HBV therapeutics have made infection a treatable disease, but they only disrupt certain areas of the HBV lifecycle. As a result, if the therapeutics are withdrawn, patients can relapse. What’s more, long-term use can cause antiviral resistance. To cure the disease, therapeutics need to address every stage of the HBV lifecycle, providing both seroclearance of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and silencing of the genomically integrated HBV DNA. However, investment in this space carries considerable risk as developers struggle to move treatments from animal models to human studies. Notably, human responses to HBV therapies are notoriously difficult to predict and traditional animal models translate poorly to the human environment, causing significant delays, as well as safety, cost, and efficacy concerns.
