Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2015; 21(15): 4644-4651
Published online Apr 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i15.4644
Covalently closed-circular hepatitis B virus DNA reduction with entecavir or lamivudine
Scott Bowden, Stephen Locarnini, Ting-Tsung Chang, You-Chen Chao, Kwang-Hyub Han, Robert G Gish, Robert A de Man, Miao Yu, Cyril Llamoso, Hong Tang
Scott Bowden, Stephen Locarnini, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Victoria 3000, Australia
Ting-Tsung Chang, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan City 704, Taiwan
You-Chen Chao, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Kwang-Hyub Han, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Severance Hospital of Yonsei University, Seoul 120-752, South Korea
Robert G Gish, Consultants LLC, San Diego, CL 92037, United States
Robert G Gish, St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AR 85013, United States
Robert G Gish, Hepatitis B Foundation, Doylestown, PE 18902, United States
Robert A de Man, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Room H375, Erasmus Medical Center, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Miao Yu, Cyril Llamoso, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Research and Development, 5 Research Pkwy, Wallingford Center, Wallingford, CO 06492, United States
Hong Tang, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Research and Development, Princeton, Northbrook, IL 60062, United States
Author contributions: Bowden S, Locarnini S, Gish RG, Llamoso C and Tang H developed the study concept and design; Bowden S, Chang TT, Chao YC, Han KH, Gish RG, de Man RA and Llamoso C carried out data acquisition; Bowden S, Gish RG, Yu M, Llamoso C and Tang H analysed and interpreted the data; statistical interpretation of the data was performed by Gish RG, Yu M, Llamoso C and Tang H; Bowden S, Gish RG, Llamoso C and Tang H provided technical support; The manuscript was drafted by Bowden S, Locarnini S, Gish RG, de Man RA, Llamoso C and Tang H; critical revision of the manuscript was performed by all authors; Bowden S, Locarnini S, Chang TT, Chao YC, Han KH, Gish RG and Llamoso C supervised the study.
Supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Scott Bowden, PhD, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia. scott.bowden@mh.org.au
Telephone: +61-3-93429615 Fax: +61-3-93429696
Received: September 8, 2014
Peer-review started: September 9, 2014
First decision: October 14, 2014
Revised: December 22, 2014
Accepted: January 16, 2015
Article in press: January 16, 2015
Published online: April 21, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: In chronic hepatitis B, persistence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is due to an intrahepatic pool of stable, HBV covalently closed-circular DNA (cccDNA), whose elimination is a limiting factor in anti-HBV treatment. This study shows that 48 wk of treatment with entecavir resulted in a greater reduction of hepatic HBV cccDNA and total hepatic HBV DNA than lamivudine. However, cccDNA was still detectable in most biopsies.