Wondering if there is any research going on into a vaccine for hepatitis D? As a person with chronic hepatitis B, this is probably the coinfection that scares me most. Hepatitis C can now be cured with a 12 week course of antivirals, and HIV is a treatable chronic condition. Hepatitis D, on the other hand, has very limited treatment options. Interferons are not all that effective, and bulevirtide/Hepcludex is only available in Europe. I don’t engage in high-risk behaviours that would expose me to hep D, but I would still take a vaccine if one were available for more peace of mind.
I understand that the usefulness of a hepatitis D vaccine would be limited only to people who already have hepatitis B, so maybe it financially doesn’t make sense.
Hi @et5656,
This is a great question. The vaccine against Hepatitis B already protects against Hepatitis D, so as you say, the business case for a HDV vaccine for people already with chronic HBV is pretty hard to make (unless there is a big noise from the HBV-affected community).
I completely share your fears, probably because I had a larger risk for Hepatitis D exposure: I worked in a research lab that was essentially generating high titre preparations of HDV. I definitely would have felt a lot safer if there was a vaccine for me or even some prophylactic therapies that could prevent infection (like PrEP, but for HDV). I would think Hepcludex could possibly work in this manner, but I don’t think this has been tested.
Thomas
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Yes, I think it’s a reasonable hypothesis that Hepcludex could prevent HDV from taking hold if you’re exposed, at least based on my rudimentary understanding of how it works. I don’t see it ever being used for this purpose, just because treatment adherence would be so difficult. It’s hard enough to get people to remember to take a pill every day, but injections are so much more unpleasant than taking a pill, and you’d have to self-administer every day.
Yes, great points. However, I’ve recently been to some conferences where orally available inhibitors of HBV entry are being developed by large companies, so perhaps soon there will be pills for this!
Thomas
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