Humoral immunity, the underestimated player in hepatitis B

摘要

Over decades,the immunological research of hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection has focused on HBVspecific T cells.In chimpanzees acutely infected with HBV,the deletion of CD4+or CD8+T cells causes chronic HBV infection.In humans,the HBV-specific T-cell response is temporally correlated with serum HBV clearance during an acute HBV infection,whereas HBVspecific T cells are both quantitatively and qualitatively defective in chronic HBV patients.