Novel therapeutic approaches for hepatitis B virus covalently closed circular DNA

作     者：Motoko Ohno Motoyuki Otsuka Takahiro Kishikawa Takeshi Yoshikawa Akemi Takata Kazuhiko Koike 

作者机构：Department of Gastroenterology Graduate School of Medicine the University of Tokyo 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Gastroenterology》 (世界胃肠病学杂志（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2015年第21卷第23期

页      面：7084-7088页

核心收录：

学科分类：1004[医学-公共卫生与预防医学(可授医学、理学学位)] 100401[医学-流行病与卫生统计学] 10[医学] 

基　　金：Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  JSPS  (25293076) 

主　　题：Hepatitis B virus Covalently closed circularHBV DNA Genome editing 

摘      要：Hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection is a major global health problem. Although current therapies, such as the use of nucleos(t)ide analogs, inhibit HBV replication efficiently, they do not eliminate covalently closed circular DNA(ccc DNA), which persists in hepatocyte nuclei. As HBV ccc DNA is a viral transcription template, novel therapeutic approaches to directly target HBV ccc DNA are necessary to completely eradicate persistent HBV infections. HBV ccc DNA levels in HBV-infected human liver cells are extremely low; thus, more reliable and simple measurement methods are needed to correctly monitor their levels during therapeutic treatment. Although reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or Southern blot procedures are currently used in research studies, these methods are not completely reliable and are also time-consuming and labor-intensive. Genome editing technologies, such as zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9(CRISPR/Cas9) system, which are designed to target specific DNA sequences, represent highly promising potential therapeutic tools. In particular, the CRISPR/Cas9 system is an easily customizable sequencespecific nuclease with high flexibility and may be the most feasible approach to target HBV ccc DNA. Further research to develop easier, safer, and more effective protocols should be pursued.