Hepatitis B

Antiviral therapy is the primary treatment strategy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), aiming to inhibit HBV replication, alleviate liver cell inflammation and fibrosis, and reduce the risk of liver failure, decompensated cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, there is currently no treatment that can completely clear covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) in infected liver cells, which is a major obstacle to achieving clinical cure for CHB. In recent years, with the continuous development and clinical trials of new drugs targeting different points, exploration of new treatment strategies for the clinical cure of CHB is gradually progressing. To this end, this journal invited Dr. Guiqiang Wang from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Peking University First Hospital to share the latest developments in the field of new drug development for the clinical cure of CHB over the past year.