Published online Oct 28, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i40.6730
Revised: September 14, 2013
Accepted: September 16, 2013
Published online: October 28, 2013
Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a major cause of human liver disease worldwide, encodes three envelope proteins needed for the attachment and entry of the virus into susceptible host cells. A second virus, hepatitis delta virus, which is known to enhance liver disease in HBV infected patients, diverts the same HBV envelope proteins to achieve its own assembly and infection. In the lab, lentiviral vectors based on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 can be assembled using the HBV envelope proteins, and will similarly infect susceptible cells. This article provides a partial review and some personal reflections of how these three viruses infect and of how recipient cells become susceptible, along with some consideration of questions that remain to be answered.
Core tip: The recent identification of a key receptor for hepatitis B virus and hepatitis delta virus provokes a wider discussion of how different cells may become susceptible to infection when the receptor is provided.