title: Present and future therapies of hepatitis B: From discovery to cure.
abstract: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a significant global pathogen, infecting more than 240 million people worldwide. While treatment for HBV has improved, HBV patients often require lifelong therapies and cure is still a challenging goal. Recent advances in technologies and pharmaceutical sciences have heralded a new horizon of innovative therapeutic approaches that are bringing us closer to the possibility of a functional cure of chronic HBV infection. In this article, we review the current state of science in HBV therapy and highlight new and exciting therapeutic strategies spurred by recent scientific advances. Some of these therapies have already entered into clinical phase, and we will likely see more of them moving along the development pipeline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With growing interest in developing and efforts to develop more effective therapies for HBV, the challenging goal of a cure may be well within reach in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Liver Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
authors.forename: T Jake
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, PA.
authors.forename: Timothy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Block
authors.affiliation: National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Anchorage, AK.
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.affiliation: Liver Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
authors.forename: Marc G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Ghany
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology and German Center for Infection Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Urban
authors.affiliation: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Doylestown, PA.
authors.forename: Ju-Tao
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Hepatology Department, Lyon University and Cancer Research Center of Lyon, INSERM U1052, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Locarnini
authors.affiliation: Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Doherty Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zoulim
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Kyong-Mi
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lok
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055808:Drug Discovery; D005544:Forecasting; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D012074:Remission Induction
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents