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Antigen Load and T Cell Function: A Challenging Interaction in HBV Infection.

Ilaria MontaliAndrea VecchiMarzia RossiCamilla TiezziAmalia PennaValentina ReverberiDiletta LaccabueGabriele MissaleCarolina BoniPaola Fisicaro
Published in: Biomedicines (2022)
Current treatment for chronic HBV infection is mainly based on nucleos(t)ide analogues, that in most cases need to be administered for a patient's lifetime. There is therefore a pressing need to develop new therapeutic strategies to shorten antiviral treatments. A severe dysfunction of virus-specific T cell responses contributes to virus persistence; hence, immune-modulation to reconstitute an efficient host antiviral response is considered a potential approach for HBV cure. In this perspective, a detailed understanding of the different causes of T cell exhaustion is essential for the design of successful functional T cell correction strategies. Among many different mechanisms which are widely believed to play a role in T cell dysfunction, persistent T cell exposure to high antigen burden, in particular HBsAg, is expected to influence T cell differentiation and function. Definitive evidence of the possibility to improve anti-viral T cell functions by antigen decline is, however, still lacking. This review aims at recapitulating what we have learned so far on the complex T cell-viral antigen interplay in chronic HBV infection.
Keyphrases
  • hepatitis b virus
  • liver failure
  • sars cov
  • oxidative stress
  • case report
  • squamous cell carcinoma
  • radiation therapy
  • climate change
  • molecular docking
  • smoking cessation