Application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in hepatitis B virus clearance / 医学研究生学报

ABSTRACT

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections remain a major public health problem worldwide, which puts human at high risks of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.The stable nuclear covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) is an important step of the HBV replication cycle, as well as the key of drastically destroy the HBV.However, α-interferons and oral nucleo(s) tide analogs cannot target and destroy the cccDNA.Nowadays, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 gene editing technology can specifically target the HBV cccDNA, which brings hope to conquer HBV.Researches of CRISPR/Cas9 technology applied to clear HBV have been reviewed in this paper.