Immune regulation of chronic hepatitis B virus infection

全世界有3.5亿多人感染乙型肝炎病毒，每年造成约75万人死亡。这使得乙型肝炎病毒在世界范围内成为肝脏相关死亡的主要原因之一。感染个体的独特免疫反应对于解决急性、自限性乙型肝炎感染至关重要。已知CD8+- t细胞和t细胞释放的细胞因子在这种免疫反应中起关键作用3,4。但是，尽管对急性乙型肝炎期间的免疫反应进行了许多研究，但对t细胞在慢性乙型肝炎期间的影响知之甚少。此外，肠道微生物组被确定为对宿主免疫系统的诱导、训练和功能产生主要影响，从而调节全身炎症的程度。在这项研究中，我想研究肠道微生物组主要影响慢性乙型肝炎期间的肝内免疫反应，从而影响疾病活动和进展的假设。我的目的是在横断面和前瞻性患者队列中研究慢性乙型肝炎感染不同阶段和疾病发作期间的适应性和先天免疫反应。

More than 350 million people worldwide are infected with the hepatitis B virus, causing a death toll of approximately 750.000 a year. This makes the hepatitis B virus worldwide one of main causes for liver-associated mortality.A distinct immunologic reaction of the infected individual is essential for the resolving of an acute, self-limiting hepatitis B infection. CD8+-T-cells and the cytokines released by T-cells are known to play a crucial role in this immunologic reaction 3,4. But despite many investigations concerning the immune response during an acute hepatitis B, little is known about the influence of T-cells during a chronic hepatitis B. Additionally the gut microbiome is identified as a major influence on the induction, training and function of the host immune system and thus regulating the extent of systemic inflammation. With the proposed study I would like to investigate the hypothesis that the gut microbiome majorly impacts the intrahepatic immune response during a chronic hepatitis B and thus takes influence on the disease activity and progression. My intention is to investigate the adaptive and innate immune response during different phases of chronic hepatitis B infection und during disease flares in both cross-sectional and prospective patient cohorts.