Immune checkpoint inhibitors in chronic hepatitis B

Abstract:

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a significant worldwide medical problem. Despite the availability of an effective prophylactic vaccine, an estimated 250 million individuals worldwide are chronically infected. Chronic infection leads to over 1 million deaths annually. Currently, interferon-alpha (IFN-α) and nucleoside/nucleotide analogues drugs are available and reduce both new infection rates and the development of liver disease in HBV-positive persons, but it is difficult to achieve the ideal clinical treatment endpoint. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are an important strategy for reversing T cell exhaustion, that aims at reinvigorating dysfunctional T cells represents a promising approach to induce a functional cure of a chronic infection. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in immune checkpoint inhibitors of programmed death receptor 1/cell programmed death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1), cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), T-cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domin (TIGIT), T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domin protein-3 (Tim-3), and lymphocyte activation gene-3 (Lag-3) in chronic hepatitis B.