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Panminerva Medica 2003 September;45(3):165-73

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Treatment modalities for hepatitis B viral infection and resistance to antiviral therapy

Pai S. B. ¹, Pai R. B. ^{1, 2}, Schinazi R. F. ^{1, 2}

¹ Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Decatur, GA, USA 2 Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Decatur, GA, USA

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The world­wide prob­lem of hep­a­titis B viral infec­tion has been the focus of a large num­ber of inves­ti­ga­tions. In the last ­decade advanc­es have been made in the under­stand­ing of the viral func­tion as well as strat­e­gies to com­bat the virus. Lamivudine, Hepsera, and inter­fer­on-α ther­a­pies that are cur­rent­ly used in the clin­ic are not opti­mal ­because of the emer­gence of resis­tance in the for­mer modal­ity and/or ­adverse ­effects. There are sev­er­al new nucle­osides that are under devel­op­ment for treat­ment of HBV. With the com­bi­na­tion of a num­ber of treat­ment pro­to­cols, it ­should be pos­sible to bring down the viral load to unde­tect­able lev­els and min­i­mize the risk of gen­er­at­ing muta­tions that con­fer resis­tance to the ther­a­peu­tic agent.