title: Combination of an antiviral drug and immunomodulation against hepadnaviral infection in the woodchuck model.
abstract: The essential role of multispecific immune responses for the control of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection implies the need of multimodal therapeutic strategies for chronic HBV infection, including antiviral chemotherapy and immunomodulation. This hypothesis was tested in the woodchuck model by a combination of lamivudine pretreatment and subsequent immunizations of woodchucks chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus. The immunizations were performed with DNA vaccines or antigen-antibody immune complexes (IC)/DNA vaccines. Immunizations with IC/DNA vaccines led to an anti-woodchuck hepatitis virus surface antibody response and significant reductions of viral load and antigenemia, suggesting that such a strategy may be effective against chronic HBV infection.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Virologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122 Essen, Germany. mengji.lu@uni-due.de
authors.forename: Mengji
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dahmen
authors.forename: Haidong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dirsch
authors.forename: Thekla
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kemper
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Glebe
authors.forename: Wolfram H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Gerlich
authors.forename: Yumei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roggendorf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018347:Hepadnaviridae Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008392:Marmota; D010957:Plasmids; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D019259:Lamivudine