Immunity to HBV and biomarkers for Early HCC detection

At present, a good understanding of host and viral factors that promote the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer upon infection with viral hepatitis viruses is lacking. Also, the host factors that are associated with response to antiviral treatment are not well characterized, but given the highly variable outcome of antiviral treatment in chronic hepatitis patients, identification is of utmost importance.  The seminar discusses recent approaches using single cell RNA sequencing of fine-needle aspiration biopsies of the liver to characterize the intrahepatic immune compartment in patients with chronic hepatitis B infections. In addition, data will be presented on the identification and validation of biomarkers associated with early-HCC detection in European and Latin American patients.