Research progress of therapeutic vaccines for treating chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a member of Hepadnavirus family, which leads to chronic infection in around 5% of patients with a high risk of developing liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Despite the availability of prophylactic vaccines against hepatitis B for over 3 decades, there are still more than 2 billion people have been infected and 240 million of them were chronic. Antiviral therapies currently used in the treatment of CHB (chronic hepatitis B) infection include peg-interferon, standard a-interferon and nucleos/tide analogs (NAs), but none of them can provide sustained control of viral replication. As an alternative strategy, therapeutic vaccines for CHB patients have been widely studied and showed some promising efficacies in dozens of preclinical and clinical trials. In this article, we review current research progress in several types of therapeutic vaccines for CHB treatment, including proteinbased vaccines, DNA-based vaccines, live vector-based vaccines, peptide-based vaccines and cell-based therapies. These researches may provide some clues for developing new treatments in CHB infection.

A dendritic cell receptor-targeted chimeric immunotherapeutic protein (C-HBV) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B

“…So far, none of these approaches have produced the expected results, and various explanations have been provided to explain the lack of efficacy of these molecules. 21,91 A number of therapeutic product candidates have been listed in a recent publication by Boni et al 21 The most advanced product candidate ABX 203 had advanced to Phase III clinical trial. ABX 203 is a mixture of 2 Virus Like Particles (VLPs) from HBsAg and HBcAg.…”

A dendritic cell-targeted chimeric hepatitis B virus immunotherapeutic vaccine induces both cellular and humoral immune responsesin vivo

“…Various approaches have been used to design and produce HBV immunotherapeutic vaccines. 10,31 These include protein/ peptide-based, antibody-based, DNA and viral vector-based as well as cell-based therapies. Some have been unsuccessful, and others are at different stages of development.…”

“…However, therapeutic vaccines based on HBsAg, virus-like particles (VLPs) of HBsAg and hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg), DNA and peptides have been tested in clinical trials with disappointing results. 10,11 An emerging strategy for immunotherapy development is to target HBV antigens to dendritic cells (DC) via specific receptors to re-activate the compromised immune responses in HBV carriers.…”

Immunity against hepatitis E virus infection: Implications for therapy and vaccine development

“…Several strategies have been developed to induce specific T cell responses, including peptide‐based CD8 + T cell vaccines or CD4 + helper T cell‐targeted vaccines . Such approaches have been employed for treating cancer and chronic HBV infection . Identification and optimization of the target epitopes are essential in designing peptide‐based T cell vaccines against HEV .…”

“…105,106 Such approaches have been employed for treating cancer and chronic HBV infection. [105][106][107] Identification and optimization of the target epitopes are essential in designing peptide-based T cell vaccines against HEV. 68,71,72 These vaccine strategies may be useful for chronic HEV patients.…”