ArticleCellular and molecular gastroenterology and hepatology2023
Hepatitis B Virus Targets Lipid Transport Pathways to Infect Hepatocytes.
Article in Cellular and molecular gastroenterology and hepatology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Liver Macrophages in the Pathogenesis of Viral Hepatitis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- Cellular lipids: fundamental host factors for monkeypox virus replication and pathogenesis.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- mRNA vaccines for HBV: Mechanisms, preclinical advances, and therapeutic clinical progress.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2026Review
- Remodeling of Metabolic and Secretory Organelles During Oncogenic and Oncomodulatory Viral Infections.Viruses · 2026Review
- Niemann-Pick type C1 protein regulates epidermal growth factor receptor stability in hepatic cells and facilitates the early steps of Hepatitis B virus infection.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Innate immune recognition in hepatitis B virus infection.Virulence · 2025Review
- CEBPB, C19MC, and Defective Autophagy Drive Novel Podosomal Belt to Macropinocytosis Transition, Lipid Accumulation, and HBV A-to-I RNA-editing.Research square · 2025Article
- Discovery of novel HBV core protein inhibitors by high throughput virtual screening.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identification of NTCP animal orthologs supporting hepatitis B virus binding and infection.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Chronic Hepatitis B Genotype C Mouse Model with Persistent Covalently Closed Circular DNA.Viruses · 2024Article
- Hepatic macrophage niche: a bridge between HBV-mediated metabolic changes with intrahepatic inflammation.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Single cell genomics based insights into the impact of cell-type specific microbial internalization on disease severity.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Secreted LRPAP1 binds and triggers IFNAR1 degradation to facilitate virus evasion from cellular innate immunity.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2023Article
- Endosomal egress and intercellular transmission of hepatic ApoE-containing lipoproteins and its exploitation by the hepatitis C virus.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Recent Insights into the Role of B Cells in Chronic Hepatitis B and C Infections.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Reverse Cholesterol Transport of Macrophages Repurposed for Hepatitis B Virus Entry.Cellular and molecular gastroenterology and hepatology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
28 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND &
aimsA single hepatitis B virus (HBV) particle is sufficient to establish chronic infection of the liver after intravenous injection, suggesting that the virus targets hepatocytes via a highly efficient transport pathway. We therefore investigated whether HBV uses a physiological liver-directed pathway that supports specific host-cell targeting in vivo.
methodsWe established the ex vivo perfusion of intact human liver tissue that recapitulates the liver physiology to investigate HBV liver targeting. This model allowed us to investigate virus-host cell interactions in a cellular microenvironment mimicking the in vivo situation.
resultsHBV was rapidly sequestered by liver macrophages within 1 hour after a virus pulse perfusion but was detected in hepatocytes only after 16 hours. We found that HBV associates with lipoproteins in serum and within machrophages. Electron and immunofluorescence microscopy corroborated a co-localization in recycling endosomes within peripheral and liver macrophages. Recycling endosomes accumulated HBV and cholesterol, followed by transport of HBV back to the cell surface along the cholesterol efflux pathway. To reach hepatocytes as final target cells, HBV was able to utilize the hepatocyte-directed cholesterol transport machinery of macrophages.
conclusionsOur results propose that by binding to liver targeted lipoproteins and using the reverse cholesterol transport pathway of macrophages, HBV hijacks the physiological lipid transport pathways to the liver to most efficiently reach its target organ. This may involve transinfection of liver macrophages and result in deposition of HBV in the perisinusoidal space from where HBV can bind its receptor on hepatocytes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.