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Tomorrow is World Hepatitis Day Hepatitis B-gone

Human T cells engineered to specifically kill hepatitis B virus-infected human liver cells in mice

27 July 2019

Hepatitis B-gone

Although infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which can cause severe liver disease and even cancer, is preventable with a vaccination, it's estimated that more than 260 million people worldwide are chronically infected. And, for such individuals there's currently no cure. That may be set to change however, if the results of a recent mouse experiment hold true in humans. Humanized mice – containing HBV-infected human liver cells – have been treated with a combination of an antiviral drug and human T cells engineered to express specific anti-HBV receptors. The tooled-up T cells have increased power for killing HBV-infected cells. Indeed, such a T-cell (in green) is shown here attacking a cell expressing HBV proteins (red), while uninfected cells (blue) remain unharmed. Importantly, this approach successfully cleared the mice of their infection, providing hope that such T-cells may also eliminate the disease and associated cancer risk in patients.

Tomorrow, 28th July, is World Hepatitis Day

Written by Ruth Williams

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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