Investigating the intrahepatic milieu in HBV therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Harnessing the immune response in chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection to optimise current treatment strategies.
IRAS ID
205404
Contact name
Patrick Kennedy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
QMUL
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a heterogeneous disease which affects in excess of 300million people worldwide. Chronic infection is characterised by variations in the level of viraemia and periods of relative disease inactivity can alternate with periods of severe inflammation with a marked hepatitis. A failure of the host immune response to control the virus leads to viral persistence and associated liver damage. Functionally impaired T-cells are a hallmark of chronic hepatitis B. Natural killer (NK), along with other immune cells, are also implicated, exerting positive and negative effects, killing virally infected liver cells, but also mediating T-cell killing, propagating viral chronicity.
Treatment options for HBV are limited; oral antivirals reduce viral load but have poor off-treatment control. Pegylated-Interferon (injection therapy) offers finite therapy with better viral clearance in a proportion of patients, but is associated with relapse. Recent work has shown these therapies modulate different immune cells; oral antivirals restore T-cell function and Interferon boosts NK cells. To optimise current treatments, we want to deliver immune boosting, but prevent NK cell mediated T-cell killing.
We will study blood and liver samples from treated (and untreated) patients to address the issues of optimising treatment regimes in HBV. Directly accessing liver cells from patients on treatment will provide a much better understanding of the host immune response during treatment at the site of infection, which will ultimately lead to improved treatment strategies and cure in HBV.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1699
Date of REC Opinion
11 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion