Copyright
©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Chronic hepatitis B: New potential therapeutic drugs target
Wattana Leowattana, Clinical Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Tawithep Leowattana, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Author contributions: Leowattana W wrote the paper; Leowattana T collected the data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wattana Leowattana, MD, MSc, PhD, Professor, Clinical Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, No. 420/6 rajavithi road, rachatawee, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. wattana.leo@mahidol.ac.th
Received: May 31, 2021
Peer-review started: May 31, 2021
First decision: July 31, 2021
Revised: August 13, 2021
Accepted: January 5, 2022
Article in press: January 5, 2022
Published online: January 25, 2022
Peer-review started: May 31, 2021
First decision: July 31, 2021
Revised: August 13, 2021
Accepted: January 5, 2022
Article in press: January 5, 2022
Published online: January 25, 2022
Core Tip
Core Tip: Current treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection with nucleos(t)ide analogs causes long-term suppression of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA levels, significantly improving hepatocellular injury and extrahepatic complications. However, the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma remains increased. New direct antiviral drugs that target the HBV life cycle, including entry blockers, assembly modulators, covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) disruptors, and hepatitis B surface antigen release inhibitors, would lead to hepatitis B surface antigen loss and a functional cure. Moreover, a combination of antiviral drugs with an immune-modulator could enhance the elimination of cccDNA and provide a definitive cure.