Viral determinants and innate immunity in persistent hepatitis B virus and hepatitis D virus infections (15)

人类乙肝病毒(乙肝)和丁型肝炎病毒(HDV)导致全球超过2.4亿人持续感染。维持持久性需要病毒策略来对抗固有的宿主免疫反应。在这个项目中，我们的目标是在分子水平上了解这种反应，以便开发新的策略来改善感染的治疗结果(功能治愈)。具体地说，我们将(I)研究乙肝病毒整合对乙肝病毒和HDV模板(cccDNA和HDV RNA)保存的影响；(Ii)阐明复制HDV RNA的先天免疫感知机制；(Iii)揭示IFN如何在细胞分裂过程中抑制HDV传播。

Human hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis D viruses (HDV) cause persistent infections in more than 240 million people worldwide. Maintenance of persistence requires viral strategies to counteract intrinsic host immune responses. In this project, we aim to understand such responses on the molecular level in order to develop novel strategies to improve therapeutic outcomes of infection (functional cure). Specifically we will (i) investigate the impact of HBV integration on preservation of HBV and HDV templates (cccDNA and HDV RNA); (ii) elucidate the mechanism of innate immune sensing of replicating HDV RNA; (iii) uncover how IFNs suppress HDV spread during cell division.