Discovery of a restriction factor for hepatitis B virus

Hepatitis B is a viral liver infection that can lead to acute or chronic conditions. Although there is a vaccine that offers protection against the virus, current treatments which prevent the virus from replicating are not curative for infected individuals. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur working in collaboration with the CNRS have demonstrated that a cellular protein is capable of acting as a restriction factor for the hepatitis B virus by degrading the viral DNA. Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects more than 250 million people worldwide, putting them at high risk of developing serious liver conditions including liver cancer, an extremely severe form of cancer for which scientists have not yet found an effective treatment. Although several antiviral treatments can effectively inhibit HBV replication, they are not curative and do not fully eliminate the virus. It is therefore important to eliminate the virus in chronic carriers so as to...