Hepatitis B

The fight against an infectious liver disease pivots from control to eradication.

Finite courses of treatment could get the virus under control — with the right combination of drugs.

The prevailing dogma for drug development is insufficient; it’s time to recentre efforts around the immune system.

The global effort to eliminate the disease depends heavily on blocking the most common mode of viral infection.

Overhauling the guidelines for who has access to testing and treatment would lower costs and improve patient outcomes.

Around the world, people with the disease are marginalized. Now, patients are finding a voice to push back and demand an end to discrimination and isolation.

Public-health expert Corinna Dan charts a course to free the United States from the virus.

Uneven access to health-care resources is complicating the drive to eliminate this viral infection.

The viral disease is widespread on the continent, but many countries lack the resources to heighten awareness and treat patients.

Often geographically isolated and without access to good health care, Indigenous people have a higher chance of contracting the disease than do other populations. They’re also prone to a viral variant that has proved difficult to treat.

More than half of the world’s cases of liver cancer are due to viral liver infections. Detecting and treating hepatitis B could help to reverse the global increase in fatal liver cancer.

Genomic jigsaws, timely vaccinations and other highlights from studies about hepatitis B.

The timely hepatitis B birth dose vaccination is recommended for all new-borns by the WHO, but coverage is inconsistent. Here, the authors model the impact of scaling-up coverage in 110 low and middle income countries and assess how it may be affected by delays for example caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Progress towards hepatitis B virus (HBV) elimination targets remains slow, despite efforts to support enhanced prevention, diagnosis and treatment. On the basis of insights from interventions against HIV, we argue for the wider use of antiviral therapy for HBV, highlighting the potential public health benefits in preventing liver disease and reducing transmission.

A first-in-human study of an antisense oligonucleotide targeting hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNA provides initial insights into this potential new therapeutic modality for individuals with chronic HBV infection.

The circadian factors BMAL1/CLOCK and REV-ERB are master regulators of the human liver transcriptome but their role in hepatitis B virus infection is largely unknown. Here, Zhuang et al. show that REV-ERB regulates hepatitis B virus entry and BMAL1 directly binds HBV DNA and activates viral genome transcription.