Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B, caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), remains a public health problem worldwide, with more than 350 million people infected worldwide. Some symptoms of Acute Hepatitis B include abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and fatigue. If left untreated, the disease will develop into Chronic Hepatitis B, which can cause end-stage liver disease, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Globally, greater than 900,000 people die from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma due to HBV every year. Therefore, early detection of HBV would be crucial for the diagnosis and ultimate treatment of Hepatitis B.

Currently, the widely used HBV detection method is mainly a blood serum based detection, which includes the traditional testing of HBV antigens (e.g. HBsAg) and antibodies (e.g. anti-HBc, anti-HBs) and the recently developed nucleic acid testing (e.g. PCR or isothermal amplification) for HBV DNA viral load. This serum-based detection method involves an invasive procedure and people who are potentially infected with hepatitis B virus would have to go to the clinical settings to have their blood drawn. Furthermore, the blood test takes a while to obtain results and requires tedious instruments.

In recent years, with the CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology being developed, exploring more rapid HBV viral detection methods has attracted researchers' interests. Additionally, it has been reported that HBV viral DNAs also exist in the saliva of infected individuals, which can be used as a screening and diagnostic medium for HBV infection.

References

1. https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis-b/index.html

2. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Hepatitis-B-Structure-Capsid-Flexibility-and-Function.aspx

3. Khan et al. 2023. Molecular Biotechnology. 65: 196-205.