• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Evaluation of New Approaches to Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccinations against Hepatitis B Viruses in the Woodchuck Model
  • Contributor: Lu, Mengji; Roggendorf, Michael
  • Published: S. Karger AG, 2001
  • Published in: Intervirology, 44 (2001) 2-3, Seite 124-131
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1159/000050039
  • ISSN: 0300-5526; 1423-0100
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: The woodchuck model is most suitable for vaccine studies of prophylaxis and therapeutic treatment of hepatitis B virus infection. Recently, methodological advances allowed the examination of antigen-specific T cell responses in woodchucks during woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) infection and vaccinations. Similar to hepatitis B virus infection in humans, multispecific T-cell responses to WHV occur during acute self-limiting infection in woodchucks. Immunizations with WHV core antigen (WHcAg) or DNA vaccines expressing WHcAg demonstrated that priming of specific T-cell responses leads to the control of WHV infection. B-cell responses but no T-cell responses to WHV surface antigens (WHsAg) were induced in chronically WHV-infected woodchucks by the therapeutic immunizations with WHsAg. Breaking T-cell tolerance appears to be critical for immunotherapeutic approaches to chronic hepatitis B.