Molecular immunopathogenesis and immunotherapy research in hepatitis B virus infection

Hepatitis B is a virus-triggered but host’s immune system-mediated liver disease frequently advancing to chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although effective immunoprophylaxis has been available for decades, infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a serious health problem worldwide and mother-to child transmission remains the prevailing route of HBV transmission. The virus is responsible for overt chronic infection in more than 250 millions individuals. Each year, more than a million new cases are diagnosed and an estimated one million deaths occur annually. In addition, a clinically asymptomatic virus carriage, termed as occult HBV infection (OBI), occurs at least ten-fold greater rate than that of the overt infection. This silent HBV persistence can trigger development of HCC and be reactivated by immunosuppressive and cytotoxic therapies causing life threating hepatitis.Importantly, HBV and its close relative infecting American woodchucks (Marmota monax) are highly oncogenic and viral DNA immediately and seemingly irreversibly integrates to genomes of the susceptible cells. Another HBV feature that is consistent with characteristics of lifelong persisting non-cytopathic viruses is the ability to infect cells of the immune system. Increasing evidence suggests that lymphotropism contributes to HBV persistence, protraction of liver disease, and to the pathogenesis of certain lymphoproliferative and hematological malignancies, although underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Immense progress has been made in recognition of HBV biology, immunogenicity, immunoprotection, natural history of infection and liver disease, etiopathogenesis of coinciding immunocomplex diseases, hepatocellular pathogenicity, and virus susceptibility to antiviral and immunomodulatory agents. Nonetheless, there is still an incomplete understanding of the majority of these issues and many other aspects of HBV biology and pathogenicity remain unrecognized requiring further investigation.This Research Topic aims to highlights emerging concepts and technologies that advance understanding of HBV-driven liver and immune pathology, while exploring novel immunotherapies, alone or combined with antivirals, to suppress viral replication and disease progression.This Research Topic welcome original research, comprehensive reviews, perspective articles and translational studies addressing but not limited to the following themes:- Adaptive and innate immune disfunction in HBV mono-infection as well as coinfection with other blood-borne viruses (i.e., HDV, HIV, HCV) and in clinically silent HBV persistence, including impairments in different immune cell subtypes and immune effector molecules, preferably measured in both circulation and the liver milieu, and linking them to markers of liver injury, HBV replication dynamics, therapy, and the patient immune phenotype.- Delineation of tumor immune microenvironment in HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma, particularly in the early stages of cancer and in the context of HBV-cellular genomic integrations. - Experimental animal models applicable for studies on the immunobiological outcomes of HBV infection, hepatitis B immunopathogenesis and mechanisms of HBV-triggered lymphoproliferative processes suitable for testing of prospective immunotherapies, either alone or in a combination with antivirals. - Application of novel multi-omic molecular technologies, including single-cell/nucleus RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, for delineation of the liver cellular landscape and HBV-hepatocyte-immune interactions in hepatitis B, during its resolution, persistent occult infection, HCC progression and therapy assessed in comparison with programs operating in the healthy liver. - Novel findings concerning maternal-to-child HBV transmission and its preventive measures, including asymptomatic HBV infection and its pathobiological consequences in children.- Advance understanding of a role of autoimmune processes in the pathogenesis and severity of liver tissue injury in hepatitis B.Please note Dr WenQing Yang is employed by ClinBridge Biotech Co Ltd. Topic editors: Tomasz I Michalak, Carla Coffin, WenQing Yang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83093/molecular-immunopathogenesis-and-immunotherapy-research-in-hepatitis-b-virus-infection