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  • Year in Review
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VIRAL HEPATITIS IN 2018

Host–pathogen interactions in chronic HBV infection and transplantation of HCV-positive organs

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 16, pages 77–78 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

HBV and HCV infections continue to be major global health problems, causing over 1 million deaths annually. Key studies this year investigated the innate and adaptive immune responses in different clinical scenarios in HBV infection, whereas others evaluated the merits of transplanting HCV-infected organs into uninfected recipients.

Key advances

  • HBV is able to act as a ‘stealth virus’ and evade the innate immune response1,2,3.

  • Factors associated with hepatitis flares after stopping antiviral therapy could eventually serve as biomarkers to predict who can safely stop treatment5,6.

  • Transmission of HCV can occur through liver transplantation despite absence of measurable viraemia in HCV-antibody positive donors, highlighting the need for close follow-up of patients receiving these organs7.

  • Organ transplantation from HCV-infected donors to HCV-uninfected recipients is safe but early and possibly even pre-emptive treatment is important to reduce the risk of relapse or severe initial infection8,9.

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Fig. 1: HBV and innate immune sensors.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

    Jordan J. Feld & Adam J. Gehring

  2. Institute for Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Jordan J. Feld & Adam J. Gehring

  3. Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Adam J. Gehring

Authors
  1. Jordan J. Feld
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  2. Adam J. Gehring
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jordan J. Feld.

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Competing interests

J.J.F. has received research support from Abbvie, Gilead, Janssen and Merck and honoraria for scientific consulting from Contravir, Enanta and Roche. A.J.G. has acted as a consultant for Aicuris, Arbutus, Roche and SpringBank Pharmaceuticals and has received research funding from Janssen & Gilead.

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Feld, J.J., Gehring, A.J. Host–pathogen interactions in chronic HBV infection and transplantation of HCV-positive organs. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 16, 77–78 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-018-0101-y

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