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Institut Pasteur Korea developed a novel hepatitis B virus cell culture platform mimicking the entire viral life cycle and susceptible to patient-derived virus isolates
2019-08-23
Institut Pasteur Korea developed a novel hepatitis B virus cell culture platform mimicking the entire viral life cycle and susceptible to patient-derived virus isolates
August 23, 2019, Gyeonggi Province, Rep. of Korea | Institut Pasteur Korea (CEO: Wang-shick Ryu) developed a novel hepatitis B virus cell culture platform mimicking the entire viral life cycle and susceptible to patient-derived virus isolates.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. About 80% of HCC cases are the consequence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infections. To date, CHB, with about 260 million infected patients worldwide, is an incurable disease; patients are treated for a lifetime with therapeutics merely reducing the viral load in the blood of patients. The development of curative HBV therapies could significantly reduce the number of HBV-related deaths and would decrease the economic burden on patients and countries.
The reasons why there is no curative therapy are manifold, e.g., since decades the lack of appropriate cell culture models to study the entire HBV life cycle hampered the discovery and development of urgently needed novel treatment approaches. Recently, a group of Korean and international researcher led by Prof. Marc Windisch, director of Discovery Biology Division at Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), developed a novel laboratory cell culture model which allows for the first time the simulation of viral infection establishment and propagation of HBV in the liver. The results were published* in the August issue of the Journal of Hepatology.
(* J. Hepatol. 2019, 71, 289–300, pii: S0168-8278(19)30271-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.010).
The mechanisms behind the characteristic highly efficient propagation of the deadly virus in patients are poorly understood because conventional cell culture models only allow monitoring limited parts of the virus infection. “The newly developed model will open new avenues enabling the investigation of the entire HBV life cycle in liver cells,” said Prof. Windisch. “Additionally, this new model also enables to examine patient-derived HBV, a novum in hepatitis research,” he added. The leading authors Dr. Alexander Koenig and Mr. Jaewon Yang highlighted, “this platform is a step towards personalized medicines for CHB patients”. Microsampling of minute amounts of patient blood is sufficient for the evaluation of strain-specific features like infectivity, viability, propagation efficiency, transmission risk and the antiviral treatment sensitivity for every individual patient. Furthermore, this novel and provisional patented cell culture model will serve as a platform technology to accelerate the discovery and development of urgently needed curative HBV interventions.
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A cell culture model simulating the propagation of HBV in the liver of patients and enabling the evaluation of HBV fitness and drug sensitivity for every individual patient.
This scientific breakthrough has been made possible by an orchestrated effort of Korean and international scientists. For over more than four years of intense and interdisciplinary collaborations with clinicians at the Catholic University and Yonsei University Severance Hospitals in Seoul, with biochemists at Yonsei University, structural biologists at the Case Western Reserve University (USA), an expert in viral hepatitis from the German National Reference Center for hepatitis B and D viruses, and with several teams within IPK, they worked together with the common goal to make a difference HBV research.
[Reference] Alexander König. et al., (2019) “Efficient long-term amplification of clinical hepatitis B virus isolates after infection of slow proliferating HepG2-NTCP cells.” J. Hepatol. 2019, 71, 289–300. pii: S0168-8278(19)30271-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.010
[Main Author]
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. About 80% of HCC cases are the consequence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infections. To date, CHB, with about 260 million infected patients worldwide, is an incurable disease; patients are treated for a lifetime with therapeutics merely reducing the viral load in the blood of patients. The development of curative HBV therapies could significantly reduce the number of HBV-related deaths and would decrease the economic burden on patients and countries.
The reasons why there is no curative therapy are manifold, e.g., since decades the lack of appropriate cell culture models to study the entire HBV life cycle hampered the discovery and development of urgently needed novel treatment approaches. Recently, a group of Korean and international researcher led by Prof. Marc Windisch, director of Discovery Biology Division at Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), developed a novel laboratory cell culture model which allows for the first time the simulation of viral infection establishment and propagation of HBV in the liver. The results were published* in the August issue of the Journal of Hepatology.
(* J. Hepatol. 2019, 71, 289–300, pii: S0168-8278(19)30271-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.010).
The mechanisms behind the characteristic highly efficient propagation of the deadly virus in patients are poorly understood because conventional cell culture models only allow monitoring limited parts of the virus infection. “The newly developed model will open new avenues enabling the investigation of the entire HBV life cycle in liver cells,” said Prof. Windisch. “Additionally, this new model also enables to examine patient-derived HBV, a novum in hepatitis research,” he added. The leading authors Dr. Alexander Koenig and Mr. Jaewon Yang highlighted, “this platform is a step towards personalized medicines for CHB patients”. Microsampling of minute amounts of patient blood is sufficient for the evaluation of strain-specific features like infectivity, viability, propagation efficiency, transmission risk and the antiviral treatment sensitivity for every individual patient. Furthermore, this novel and provisional patented cell culture model will serve as a platform technology to accelerate the discovery and development of urgently needed curative HBV interventions.
A cell culture model simulating the propagation of HBV in the liver of patients and enabling the evaluation of HBV fitness and drug sensitivity for every individual patient.
This scientific breakthrough has been made possible by an orchestrated effort of Korean and international scientists. For over more than four years of intense and interdisciplinary collaborations with clinicians at the Catholic University and Yonsei University Severance Hospitals in Seoul, with biochemists at Yonsei University, structural biologists at the Case Western Reserve University (USA), an expert in viral hepatitis from the German National Reference Center for hepatitis B and D viruses, and with several teams within IPK, they worked together with the common goal to make a difference HBV research.
[Reference] Alexander König. et al., (2019) “Efficient long-term amplification of clinical hepatitis B virus isolates after infection of slow proliferating HepG2-NTCP cells.” J. Hepatol. 2019, 71, 289–300. pii: S0168-8278(19)30271-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2019.04.010
[Main Author]
- Co-first Author: Alexander König (Applied Molecular Virology Laboratory, Institut Pasteur Korea), Jaewon Yang (Applied Molecular Virology Laboratory, Institut Pasteur Korea),
- Corresponding Author: Marc Peter Windisch (Applied Molecular Virology Laboratory, Institut Pasteur Korea)