Research advances in cytokines in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

At present, there are still about 250 million people with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection around the world, which seriously threatens human life and health. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) can develop into liver diseases such as liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma; however, there is still a limited number of antiviral drugs and an extremely low cure rate in clinical practice, and thus it is urgent to develop new antiviral drugs. HBV has strong hepatotropism and only infects a few primates such as humans and chimpanzees under natural conditions. Whether immune response (innate immunity and adaptive immunity) can effectively recognize and eliminate or inhibit HBV is an important factor leading to different outcomes after virus infection, and cytokines play an important immunoregulatory role in this process. This article summarizes and discusses the research advances in some key cytokines in CHB infection and treatment.