Animal models for the study of hepatitis B virus infection

Zool Res. 2018 Jan 18;39(1):25-31. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.013.

Abstract

Even with an effective vaccine, an estimated 240 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) worldwide. Current antiviral therapies, including interferon and nucleot(s)ide analogues, rarely cure chronic hepatitis B. Animal models are very crucial for understanding the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B and developing new therapeutic drugs or strategies. HBV can only infect humans and chimpanzees, with the use of chimpanzees in HBV research strongly restricted. Thus, most advances in HBV research have been gained using mouse models with HBV replication or infection or models with HBV-related hepadnaviral infection. This review summarizes the animal models currently available for the study of HBV infection.

Keywords: Animal model; Duck hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis B virus; Woodchuck hepatitis virus.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Chimera / virology
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Ducks
  • Hepatitis B / etiology*
  • Hepatitis B / therapy
  • Hepatitis B virus / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Marmota
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Tupaia

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Chinese National Key Technology R&D Program (2015BAI09B06), National Science and Technology Major Project for Infectious Diseases of China (2012ZX10004503, 2017ZX10304402-002-005), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81461130019)