Hepatitis B (HBV) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease and liver transplants. Globally, more than 250 million people are living with chronic HBV. Current treatments for HBV include antiviral medications that interfere with viral replication and interferon, a medicine which stimulates the body’s immune system to clear the virus. Unfortunately, both types of therapies have a low cure rate and may be hampered by toxicities associated with their administration.
AB359 is an investigational therapy designed to selectively activate CD8+ effector T cells, thereby offering the potential to enhance the immune response to chronic viral infections, including HBV. Historical HBV experiments in primates demonstrate that CD8+ T cells are essential for clearing infection. Furthermore, functional HBV-reactive CD8+ T cells are detectable in HBV patients that clear viral infection but are challenging to detect in patients with chronic HBV, and there are case reports of HBV clearance in patients following bone marrow transplants from HBV-infection-resolved donors. Collectively, this evidence suggests CD8+ T cells are important to HBV clearance.
In a preclinical model, AB359 increased the number of HBV-reactive CD8+ T cells and stimulated the clearance of HBV infected hepatocytes and viral DNA. Stimulating CD8+ T cells via AB359, our cis-targeted IL-2, may aid patients in resolving chronic HBV infection by increasing the number of HBV-specific CD8+ T cells resulting in immunological clearance of HBV infected hepatocytes.
View our poster presented at EASL 2023 entitled CD8 cis-targeted IL-2 drives potent antiviral activity against hepatitis B virus.
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