Key scientific issues and breakthrough paths to eliminate the harm of hepatitis B virus infection

Yixue WANG; Bo PENG; Lei WEI; Quanxin LONG; Yuchen XIA; Yinyan SUN; Wenhui LI

doi:10.12449/JCH260101

Volume 42 Issue 1

Jan. 2026

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Key scientific issues and breakthrough paths to eliminate the harm of hepatitis B virus infection

DOI: 10.12449/JCH260101

Yixue WANG^{1, 2},
Bo PENG^{1, 2},
Lei WEI³,
Quanxin LONG⁴,
Yuchen XIA⁵,
Yinyan SUN^{1, 2},
Wenhui LI^{1, 2
,
,
,}

1.
National Institute of Biological Sciences，Beijing 102206，China
2.
Tsinghua Institute of Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research，Tsinghua University， Beijing 100084， China
3.
Center for Infectious Disease Research， School of Medicine， Westlake University，Hangzhou 310024， China
4.
Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Infectious Diseases （Ministry of Education）， Institute for Viral Hepatitis， Department of Infectious Diseases， The Second Affiliated Hospital， Chongqing Medical University， Chongqing 400010， China
5.
TaiKang Medical School， Wuhan University， Wuhan 430071， China

Research funding:

Prevention and Control of Emerging and Major Infectious Diseases-National Science and Technology Major Project (2025ZD01906700)

More Information

Corresponding author: LI Wenhui， liwenhui@nibs.ac.cn （ORCID： 0000-0003-1305-7407）
Received Date: 2025-11-01
Accepted Date: 2025-11-26
Published Date: 2026-01-25

Abstract

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus （HBV） exclusively infects liver parenchymal cells and forms covalently closed circular DNA （cccDNA） within their nuclei. HBV cccDNA serves as the essential template for viral gene transcription， the sole source of progeny virus production， and the key driver of viral antigen expression， and it is the molecular basis for the persistence of HBV infection. Therefore， elimination and/or functional silencing of cccDNA is the key to eradicate chronic HBV infection. This article discusses the critical scientific issues that need to be solved during elimination of the harm of HBV infection from the perspectives of the synthesis， transcription， and clearance of cccDNA， as well as the impact of nonparenchymal cells on cccDNA， in order to provide a reference for eradicating HBV infection in the future.
- Hepatitis B Virus,
- Covalently Closed Circular DNA,
- Molecular Mechanisms

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References(50)

References

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Key scientific issues and breakthrough paths to eliminate the harm of hepatitis B virus infection

DOI: 10.12449/JCH260101

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Key scientific issues and breakthrough paths to eliminate the harm of hepatitis B virus infection

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