Hepatitis Viruses and Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Research, Treatment and Challenges
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Immunology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2024 | Viewed by 2256
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer, accounting for more than 90% of all primary tumors of the liver. It starts in hepatocytes, which are the main cell type in the liver. Chronic infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis D virus (HDV) are the most significant risk factors for HCC, among other factors such as metabolic-associated fatty liver disease or alcoholic liver disease.
Thanks to the molecular research on HCV, including the establishment of a “subgenomic replicon” system, the roles of the viral proteins and the main steps of the viral replication cycle have been deciphered, which paved the way for the discovery of a curative therapy based on direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) such as sofosbuvir (acting on the viral polymerase NS5B) and daclatasvir (acting on NS5A), which can clear HCV in more than 95% of patients. Speaking of HBV, there are more than 300 million infected individuals worldwide, and 1.5 million new infections each year despite the existence of a highly efficient vaccine. Research on HBV led to the use of reverse transcriptase-based inhibitors, like tenofovir, in order to control infection in chronic carriers, and the search for more effective therapies and a functional cure for HBV is ongoing. HDV infection occurs when people become simultaneously infected with HBV and HDV or acquire HDV after first being infected with HBV. HDV superinfection is an aggravating factor augmenting the risk of liver failure due to fulminant hepatitis or accelerated liver cirrhosis and HCC.
The fight against hepatitis viruses is far from being won due to insufficient treatment coverage (e.g., for HCV only 20% of carriers are diagnosed and 13% are treated, according to the WHO, especially in middle- and low-income countries), the lack of a vaccine (HCV, HDV), and the appearance of resistant variants (HCV, HBV). Moreover, some people who have cleared the virus after a prolonged HCV infection may still develop liver cancer.
The scope of this Special Issue, entitled “Hepatitis Viruses and Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Research, Treatment and Challenges”, is to try to answer the questions that still remain open, such as the following:
- What are the precise molecular mechanisms of virus-induced HCC?
- What are the molecular determinants of HCC after virus elimination?
- Where do we stand in terms of the development of an HCV or HDV vaccine, or with the discovery of cellular targets for novel antiviral approaches?
- How could HBV elimination be achieved?
Dr. Boyan Grigorov
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- HBV
- HDV
- HCV
- virus replication and pathogenesis
- antivirals
- virus–cell interaction
- vaccine development
- hepatocellular carcinoma
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