[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/mt\/article\/modal\/15098\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ESeeking a lasting cure for hepatitis B\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHepatitis B is a chronic infection affecting roughly 254 million people worldwide and causing about 1.1 million deaths each year, mainly from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Although a preventive vaccine has been available for more than 40 years, there is still no cure for people already living with the disease. Current antiviral medicines can suppress the virus, but cannot eliminate it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ecdc.europa.eu\/en\/viral-hepatitis\u0022\u003EEuropean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)\u003C\/a\u003E, around 3.6 million people in the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are chronically infected with hepatitis B. Many do not realise they are infected until serious liver damage has already occurred, leaving them on lifelong treatment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPeople think we have solved the problem because we have a preventive vaccine. But for the millions already living with chronic hepatitis B, that is simply not true,\u201d said Professor Ulrike Protzer, director of the Institute of Virology at the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, however, Protzer and other researchers across Europe believe a functional cure may finally be within reach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProtzer has spent more than two decades studying how hepatitis B evades the immune system, and developing new ways to help the body fight back.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI call hepatitis B the most frequent neglected disease in the world,\u201d said Protzer, who is leading an international team of researchers developing a new vaccine for people living with chronic hepatitis B.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir work is part of the six\u2011year EU\u2011funded TherVacB research initiative that concludes at the end of 2026. While conventional hepatitis B vaccines prevent infection, this therapeutic vaccine is intended for people who are already chronically infected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EI call hepatitis B the most frequent neglected disease in the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Ulrike Protzer, TherVacB\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than trying to attack the virus directly, Protzer\u2019s team is asking a different question: can the immune system itself be trained to regain control? The aim is to recreate the type of immune response seen in people who naturally clear hepatitis B after becoming infected later in life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPeople who eliminate the virus develop strong antibody and T\u2011cell responses,\u201d said Protzer, referring to immune cells that detect and kill infected cells. \u201cWe designed our therapeutic vaccine to activate exactly those kinds of immune responses.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEarly clinical studies in healthy volunteers showed the vaccine was well tolerated and successfully stimulated the expected immune response. Patient trials are now underway in Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Tanzania.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the researchers caution that the work remains in its early clinical stages, they believe therapeutic vaccines could eventually become an important component of future combination treatments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ECause for hope\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe World Health Organization aims to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Achieving that goal will require earlier diagnosis, wider vaccination and more effective treatments for people already living with chronic infection.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGrowing optimism in recent years comes from a shift in scientific thinking. Rather than relying on a single treatment to eliminate the virus, researchers increasingly believe that a functional cure will come from combining therapies that work effectively together, allowing patients to keep the virus under control without continuous treatment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are entering a very exciting time in hepatitis B research,\u201d said Dr Maria But\u00ed Ferret, a hepatologist with decades of experience treating patients with the disease.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMany new treatments are being developed, targeting different parts of the virus or helping the immune system fight it more effectively. The future will probably not come from a single treatment, but from combining different approaches that work together.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut\u00ed Ferret is a professor of medicine at the Universitat Aut\u00f2noma de Barcelona and a senior hepatologist at Hospital Universitari Vall d\u2019Hebron, one of Europe\u2019s leading liver disease centres.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor the past six years, she has been part of another international research team supported by the EU called IP\u2011cure\u2011B, which investigates whether scientists can restore the immune system\u2019s ability to control hepatitis B naturally.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrent antiviral medicines cannot remove the tiny viral reservoir that remains hidden inside liver cells. As soon as treatment stops, the virus often returns.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers in IP\u2011cure\u2011B therefore explored whether they could \u201cwake up\u201d the body\u2019s own defences before stopping antiviral medicine. In this way, the immune system would be better prepared to keep the virus under control in the long term.\u003Cbr\u003EThe project\u2019s Phase IIa clinical trial has now been completed, with researchers analysing whether this immune\u2011based approach can achieve a functional cure. Alongside the clinical trial, the team is also searching for biological clues in patients\u2019 blood and immune systems that could reveal who is most likely to benefit from future immune\u2011based treatments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat we learn won\u2019t only be relevant for our own study,\u201d said project coordinator Fabien Zoulim, professor of medicine at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France, and one of Europe\u2019s leading experts on chronic hepatitis B.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt could also help us understand which patients are most likely to respond to the new immune\u2011based treatments or direct acting antivirals that are now emerging.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ECombining strengths\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIncreasingly, scientists think that combination therapy will be the key. If the virus is first reduced using antiviral medicines or new antiviral technologies, the immune system may then be better able to respond to therapeutic vaccines or other immune\u2011based treatments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003EPrecision medicine for hepatitis B will be a must to optimise the hepatitis B virus cure rates.\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EProfessor Fabien Zoulim, IP-cure-B\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecognising that no single approach is likely to solve the problem alone, the TherVacB and IP\u2011cure\u2011B teams teamed up in 2023. They shared expertise and compared findings as they explored how different immune\u2011based strategies could ultimately be combined to improve patients\u2019 chances of achieving long\u2011lasting relief.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf virus levels remain high, immune cells become overwhelmed,\u201d Protzer explained. \u201cThe logical approach is first to reduce the amount of virus and then activate the immune response.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZoulim believes these new approaches will also make treatment more personalised. \u201cThe objective is to better characterise patients and propose the best treatment according to their own specific situation,\u201d he said. \u201cPrecision medicine for hepatitis B will be a must to optimise the hepatitis B virus cure rates.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EPromise of a cure\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecent clinical advances have strengthened that optimism. Several experimental therapies have shown that a functional cure is achievable in a proportion of patients, transforming expectations for a disease once considered incurable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cLiving with a chronic infection is not only a medical issue, it can also have an emotional and social impact,\u201d But\u00ed Ferret said. \u201cMany people still experience stigma and misunderstanding around hepatitis B.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA functional cure could mean fewer years of medication, less anxiety and a lower risk of liver disease progressing towards cirrhosis and cancer. But the researchers stress that scientific advances must go hand in hand with wider testing, earlier diagnosis and treatment, and continued vaccination.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile no single therapy is expected to provide the answer, researchers believe that combining new antiviral and immune\u2011based approaches marks the start of a new chapter in hepatitis B research, shifting the focus from controlling the disease to curing it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded by the EU\u2019s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. 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