Combination of an antiviral drug and immunomodulation against hepadnaviral infection in the woodchuck model.
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.
Lu
Mengji
M
Institut für Virologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122 Essen, Germany. mengji.lu@uni-due.de
Yao
Xin
X
Xu
Yang
Y
Lorenz
Heike
H
Dahmen
Uta
U
Chi
Haidong
H
Dirsch
Olaf
O
Kemper
Thekla
T
He
Lifang
L
Glebe
Dieter
D
Gerlich
Wolfram H
WH
Wen
Yumei
Y
Roggendorf
Michael
M
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
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D019259:Lamivudine