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Hepatitis B Virus Immunopathogenesis

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Book cover Hepatitis B Virus in Human Diseases

Part of the book series: Molecular and Translational Medicine ((MOLEMED))

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Abstract

Owing to patients, experimentally infected chimpanzees, transgenic mice, and other surrogate animal models (woodchucks, ground squirrels, or ducks infected by naturally occurring hepadnaviruses), our understanding of hepatitis B virus (HBV) immunopathogenesis has greatly improved in the last few decades. It is generally acknowledged that HBV replicates noncytopathically in the hepatocyte and that most of the clinical syndromes associated with this infection reflect the adaptive immune response, especially the virus-specific effector CD8+ T cell response. It is also evident that CD8+ T cell effector functions promote the resolution of HBV infection and that viral persistence results from the failure to induce or maintain these CD8+ T cell-dependent events. The means by which CD8+ T cells traffic, recognize hepatocellular antigens and deploy effector functions—and how such processes are affected by the anatomical conditions that characterize the normal or diseased liver—have been recently elucidated. This chapter discusses past and recent scientific achievements related to HBV immunopathogenesis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Serra for secretarial assistance; D. Inverso for help with figure preparation; and all the members of the Iannacone and Guidotti laboratories for helpful discussions. This work was supported by ERC grants 281648 (to M.I.) and 250219 (to L.G.G.), NIH grant R01-AI40696 (to L.G.G.), Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) grants 9965 and 15350 (to M.I.), Italian Ministry of Health grant GR-2011-02347925 (to M.I.), and a Career Development Award from the Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation (to M.I.). We apologize to all colleagues whose work could not be cited because of space constraints.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina 58, 20132, Milan, Italy

    Matteo Iannacone & Luca G. Guidotti

  2. Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, 20132, Italy

    Matteo Iannacone

  3. Department of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA

    Luca G. Guidotti

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  1. Matteo Iannacone
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  2. Luca G. Guidotti
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Correspondence to Matteo Iannacone or Luca G. Guidotti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chang Gung University, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yun-Fan Liaw

  2. INSERM Unit 1052, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon University, Lyon, France

    Fabien Zoulim

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Iannacone, M., Guidotti, L.G. (2016). Hepatitis B Virus Immunopathogenesis. In: Liaw, YF., Zoulim, F. (eds) Hepatitis B Virus in Human Diseases. Molecular and Translational Medicine. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22330-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22330-8_4

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