Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Hepatitis Viruses: Who They Are and Consequences

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Virology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 1772

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon INSERM U1052, CNRS UMR5286, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
Interests: HBV variants; hepatocellular carcinoma
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Laboratorio de Virología Molecular, Centro de Microbiología y Biología Celular (CMBC), Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Caracas 1020A, Venezuela
Interests: hepatitis viruses; HIV; SARS-CoV-2; influenza; emerging viruses; viral genomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Viral hepatitis includes several universal infectious diseases (HV) which have in common an inflammation of liver cells linked to viruses: the enteric HAV, and HEV, and the parenterally-transmitted viruses, HBV, HCV, and HDV, this last requiring HBV co-infection. Chronic viral hepatitis C, B and Delta are diseases that are most often silent, asymptomatic, responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, for which the World Health Organization (WHO) has set the elimination objective by 2030 (90% of patients diagnosed and 80% of patients treated). More than 290 million people worldwide live with HBV and around 58 million with HCV. An estimated 1.3 million people died from chronic viral hepatitis B and C in 2022. Around 90% of HBV or HCV infected patients are unaware of their status, making difficult to accomplish the 2030 objective. Although there is a highly effective vaccine against HAV, HBV (also preventing HDV infection) and HEV, and a highly effective treatment against HCV, to control the burden of these diseases, a combination of vaccination and availability of effective treatment is then needed. The aim of this special issue is to point the essential issues for each of those viral infection, to achieve the elimination objective by 2030.

Special topics:

  • Hepatitis A vaccine: who and where?
  • Zoonotic hepatitis E genotypes and persistence.
  • HBV emerging therapies.
  • Programs of HBV universal vaccination
  • Removing barriers to HBV and HCV care cascades.
  • Managing HBV chronic carriers and sequelae.
  • HCV redoubts limiting elimination.
  • HCV vaccine.
  • Clarifying the enigma around HDV.

Expected papers:

  • Update on the use of the hepatitis A vaccine?
  • What are the new data regarding hepatitis E?
  • Where is the epidemiology of hepatitis C that can be cured?
  • HCV infection and PWID
  • Hemodialysis: an HCV redoubt.
  • Illustration of the substantial disparities in HBV burden between countries and regions but also within a country or region, income, race or ethnicity, and other social and cultural factors.
  • How to improve the management of cirrhosis and liver cancer HBV-related deaths, (acute flares and reactivation, extrahepatic complications, and social stigma)?
  • Current programs regarding Universal infant vaccination with timely birth dose and peripartum antiviral prophylaxis in mothers with a high level of HBV DNA?
  • How to improve Underdiagnosis and low treatment rates of chronic HBV infection are serious even in high-income countries and exacerbated in low-income countries?
  • What actions to remove the barriers that disrupt the current HBV care cascade and to close the gaps in HBV prevention, screening, diagnosis, linkage to care, antiviral treatment and liver cancer surveillance? Towards the integration of quality of life measurement and cost-effectiveness calculations in clinical trials?

Dr. Isabelle Chemin
Prof. Dr. Flor Helene Pujol
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • viral hepatitis
  • liver
  • pathogenesis
  • cancer
  • fibrosis
  • natural history
  • treatments
  • epidemiology
  • vaccine
  • genotypes

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2197 KiB  
Article
Real-Life Diagnostic Accuracy and Clinical Utility of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Nucleic Acid Testing Using the GeneXpert Point-of-Care Test System from Fresh Plasma and Dry Blood Spot Samples in The Gambia
by Amie Ceesay, Sainabou Drammeh, Gibril Ndow, Alpha Omar A. Jallow, Haddy Nyang, Baboucarr Bittaye, Francis S. Mendy, Ousman Secka, Umberto D’Alessandro, Yusuke Shimakawa, Erwan Vo-Quang, Barbara Testoni, Mark Thursz, Maud Lemoine and Isabelle Chemin
Microorganisms 2024, 12(11), 2273; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12112273 - 9 Nov 2024
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Abstract
The GeneXpert HBV Viral Load test is a simplified tool to scale up screening and HBV monitoring in resource-limited settings, where HBV is endemic and where molecular techniques to quantify HBV DNA are expensive and scarce. However, the accuracy of field diagnostics compared [...] Read more.
The GeneXpert HBV Viral Load test is a simplified tool to scale up screening and HBV monitoring in resource-limited settings, where HBV is endemic and where molecular techniques to quantify HBV DNA are expensive and scarce. However, the accuracy of field diagnostics compared to gold standard assays in HBV-endemic African countries has not been well understood. We aim to validate the diagnostic performance of the GeneXpert HBV Viral Load test in freshly collected and stored plasma and dried blood spot (DBS) samples to assess turn-around-time (TAT) for sample processing and treatment initiation, to map GeneXpert machines and to determine limitations to its use in The Gambia. Freshly collected paired plasma and DBS samples (n = 56) were analyzed by the GeneXpert test. Similarly, stored plasma and DBS samples (n = 306, n = 91) were analyzed using the GeneXpert HBV test, in-house qPCR and COBAS TaqMan Roche. The correlation between freshly collected plasma and DBS is r = 0.88 with a mean bias of −1.4. The GeneXpert HBV test had the highest quantifiable HBV DNA viremia of 81.4% (n = 249/306), and the lowest was detected by in-house qPCR at 37.9% (n = 116/306) for stored plasma samples. Bland–Altman plots show strong correlation between GeneXpert and COBAS TaqMan and between GeneXpert and in-house qPCR with a mean bias of +0.316 and −1.173 log10 IU/mL, respectively. However, paired stored plasma and DBS samples had a lower mean bias of 1.831 log10 IU/mL, which is almost significant (95% limits of agreement: 0.66–3.001). Patients (n = 3) were enrolled in the study within a TAT of 6 days. The GeneXpert HBV test displayed excellent diagnostic accuracy by detecting HBV viremia in less than 10 IU/mL. Full article
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15 pages, 693 KiB  
Review
Chronic Hepatitis D Virus Infection and Its Treatment: A Narrative Review
by Poonam Mathur, Arshi Khanam and Shyam Kottilil
Microorganisms 2024, 12(11), 2177; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12112177 - 29 Oct 2024
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Abstract
More than 12 million individuals worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis D virus (HDV). HDV infection is the most severe form of viral hepatitis since it requires hepatitis B virus co-infection and accelerates progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, treatment modalities [...] Read more.
More than 12 million individuals worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis D virus (HDV). HDV infection is the most severe form of viral hepatitis since it requires hepatitis B virus co-infection and accelerates progression to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, treatment modalities to slow the progression of the disease are essential but not yet available. In addition, no antiviral treatment to date has been shown to reliably eradicate HDV. Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) is the only universally used treatment to suppress HDV RNA replication and improve liver inflammation and fibrosis. This treatment can be completed in 12–18 months, but cure rates remain low, and success does not reliably increase with the addition of a nucleos(t)ide analog. PEG-IFN therapy is also limited by poor tolerability and multiple adverse effects, including neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Newer antiviral therapies in development target unique aspects of HDV viral replication and show promising results in combination with PEG-IFN for long-term HDV RNA suppression. These newer antiviral therapies include buleviritide (which blocks HDV entry), lonafarnib (which prevents HDV assembly), and REP-2139 (which prevents HDV export). In this manuscript, we discuss the characteristics of HDV infection and review the new antiviral therapies approved for treatment and those under investigation. Full article
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