Interesting how the human body works. These infants were given Lamiduvine followed by interferon and 19 of 21 of them functionally cured. Yet the same course of drugs doesn’t have the same effect once CHB has been in the system for years.
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This indeed is interesting and it would be important to see if these results can be replicated in other centres and other (more modern) antivirals.
There may be some underlying biology to it - our research group showed that if an infected cell divides, then it results in 2 uninfected cells (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589555922000866). I guess, if you limit viral replication with antivirals, stimulate the immune system with interferon, and you have a rapidly growing liver (normal development as a newborn grows), then you may be able to clear the virus this way.
Thomas
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Note that an infant’s physiology and immune system are quite different from an adults–those differences are why drugs need to be tested for efficacy and toxicity in children after they’ve been proven safe and effective in adults rather than just adjusting the dose to match the smaller size of children. Such biological differences between adults and children could easily cause better outcomes in infants (or worse ones…we just can’t predict it).
John.
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