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A siege of hepatitis: Immune boost for viral hepatitis

Finding mechanisms of viral resistance and new ways to tackle chronic hepatitis will help find a cure for this disease. In 'Bench to Bedside', Christopher Walker and Benoît Callendret highlight studies showing that overcoming immune exhaustion during chronic infection by blocking several inhibitory pathways of T cells may restore an adequate immune response. In 'Bedside to Bench', Lawrence Corey, Joshua Schiffer and John Scott discuss recent advances in antiviral therapy with protease inhibitors and the findings of a mathematical model that predicts possible single and double mutations prior to antiviral therapy.

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Figure 1: Multiple inhibitory pathways may be activated in the exhausted CD8+ T cells in the persistently infected liver, including PD-1 and TIM-3.

Katie Vicari

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Correspondence to Christopher Walker.

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Competing interests

C.W. is a consultant to Merck and Roche and is on the scientific advisory boards of Transgene and Okairos.

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Callendret, B., Walker, C. A siege of hepatitis: Immune boost for viral hepatitis. Nat Med 17, 252–253 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0311-252

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