Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Sep 28, 2015; 7(21): 2319-2322
Published online Sep 28, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i21.2319
Innate immune recognition of hepatitis B virus
Hong-Yan Liu, Xiao-Yong Zhang
Hong-Yan Liu, Xiao-Yong Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Liu HY wrote the paper; Zhang XY reviewed it.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nos. 81301421 and 81301434.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Xiao-Yong Zhang, Professor, State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 1838, North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China. xiaoyzhang@smu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-20-62787830
Received: June 10, 2015
Peer-review started: June 15, 2015
First decision: August 4, 2015
Revised: August 21, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 8, 2015
Published online: September 28, 2015
Processing time: 104 Days and 19.1 Hours
Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic DNA virus and its infection results in acute or chronic hepatitis. It is reported that the host innate immune system contributes to viral control and liver pathology, while whether and how HBV can trigger the components of innate immunity remains controversial. In recent years, the data accumulated from HBV-infected patients, cellular and animal models have challenged the concept of a stealth virus for HBV infection. This editorial focuses on the current findings about the innate immune recognition to HBV. Such evaluation could help us to understand HBV immunopathogenesis and develop novel immune therapeutic strategies to combat HBV infection.

Keywords: Hepatitis B virus; Pathogen-recognition receptor; Hepatocytes; Interferon; Innate immunity

Core tip: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is prevalent worldwide as a major public health problem and the leading cause of severe liver diseases. A plethora of evidence suggests that innate immune pathways are involved in the cross-talk between HBV components and host immune cells. Many type of cells, including hepatocytes, kupffer cells and circulating monocytes, could sense and be activated by HBV infection through specific pathogen recognition receptors, resulting in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and interferons. Understanding of the nature of innate immunity induced by HBV will aid to characterize the immunopathogenesis of HBV infection and to further design novel immune-based therapeutic strategies for HBV infection.